The cyclical in W.B. Yeats's poetry.

8/12/2019 The cyclical in W.B. Yeats's poetry.

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The cyclical in the poetry of W.B Yeats.

The Irish Wiliam Butler Yeats, born in 1865 and considered as one of the maor poets of the !"th

century is the author I chose in order to ha#e an insi$ht of his comple% #ision of the &orld. Yeats

had a cyclical #ision of life and human history, de#eloped in his &or'A Vision, that I found in three

of his poems. Throu$h a close readin$ of them, I am $oin$ to e%plain Yeats( usa$e of different

symbols and his ability to rene& and mer$e classic myths and pa$anism &ith )hristian reli$ion,

usin$ them in a modern and uni*ue &ay &hich ma'e him, in my #ie&, a modernist poet. William

Butler Yeats presents this cyclic sense of life throu$h symbols li'e the returnin$ ma$ical s&ans, the

continually turnin$ $yres or the passin$ seasons in a natural landscape. In all of them, &e find a

ma$ical atmosphere used to reinforce the importance of these cycles, &hich are cosmic and escape

human control. In these cycles, a dialectic of life and death, mortality and immortality, humanity

and di#ine, hope and despair is present in order to pro#ide the reader &ith a complete #ision of the

Yeats( approach to the &orld from his poetic and personal maturity.

The &or's I &ill analy+e in this essay are William Butler Yeats( poems-eda and the &an/,

/The Wild &ans at )oole/ and The econd )omin$/. The three of them belon$ to different poem

boo's and therefore, to distinct sta$es of his poetic de#elopment. The first t&o are thematically

different but share the principal symbol of the s&an, e#en if this symbol must be interpreted in

distinct &ays in each &or'. -eda and the &an/and The econd )omin$/ are symbolic poems in

&hich the notion the poet had of human history bein$ formed by different cycles that lasted t&o

thousand years is present. The )hristian era is ust another cycle in the human history(s continuum,

but it is described as an entire &heel in order to hi$hli$ht the prolon$ed duration of each one of

these cycles. In -eda and the &an/, the annunciation of Ancient 0reece and ome(s historic cycle

presented by Yeats, lasted until the )hristian era. The )hristian era &as, accordin$ to the poet, t&o

thousand years lon$ as &ell and its end is presented in The econd )omin$/, in &hich &e can also

find the annunciation of a ne& era, pro#idin$ the reader &ith a clear insi$ht of the cyclic in these


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poems. The importance of the cyclic is also present in his poemThe Wild &ans at )oole/,

throu$h the s&ans(arri#al and departure to )oole(s la'e in the same season throu$hout nineteen

years. Alon$ &ith the presence of the cyclic in Yeats( poems, I am $oin$ to also analy+e the

symbolism present in the three of them &ith the aim of e%plainin$ ho& the application of

mytholo$ic symbols and ima$ery to modern times and his apocalyptic #ision of the future ma'e

William Butler Yeats a modernist poet.

The Wild &ans at )oole/ is the first poem of Yeats collection of poemsThe Wild Swans at

Coole21314. The poem is composed by a re$ular stan+aform. The stan+a is formed by fi#e or si%

lines, &ritten in iambicmeter 2unstressed syllables follo&ed by stressed syllables, &ith the first and

third lines in tetrameter, the second, fourth, and si%th lines in trimeter and the fifth in pentameter,

li'e this, the pattern of stressed syllables in each stan+a is 7757. The rhyme scheme in each

stan+a is AB)B. Accordin$ to William 9(onnel, it belon$s to the third period of his poetics,

The :e& Thou$hts/ &hich &ent from 1315 to 13!12It &as &ritten in 1315, &hen he turned fifty

and published in 1314. The poet &rote this poem after the last reection of his lo#e ;aud 0onne<

The poem &as be$un shortly after Yeats( return from =rance in autumn 1316, durin$ &hich he

proposed to ;aud 0onne for the last time and &as a$ain refused. At a$e of fifty>one he &as

contemplatin$ the prospect of ne#er marryin$ and ha#in$ children./2?ethica, 5. This prospect of a

solitary future, reected by the &oman he lo#ed, is probably the cause of the melancholic and

reflecti#e tone of the poem, in &hich the repetition of ;aud 0onne(s reection could be symboli+ed

throu$h the cycle of life and death that the beautiful s&ans that appear and fade a&ay represent.

Yeats &rote this poem inspired by the house and $round &here -ady 0re$ory, an Irish dramatist,

fol'lorist, co>founder of the Abbey theater and of the Irish -iterary Theatre, used to in#ite Irish

-iterary e#i#al authors. As a conse*uence of this, )oole par' became a meetin$ place for the Irish

&riters and e#en a symbolic location for some of them. William Butler Yeats &as a re$ular $uest at

)oole par', &here he stayed for lon$ periods of time, since -ady 0re$ory &anted him to be in a

place &here he could focus on his &ritin$, and )oole(s par' &as a perfect en#ironment for that due


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to its *uietness and beauty. The modernity of The Wild &ans at )oole/ lies in his praise of the

beauty that Irish landscape has, described as if it &ere part of Yeats( self. Yeats spo'e for Ireland

throu$h his descriptions of the landscape and nature as a mirror of his o&n feelin$s and reflections

about life!. The autumn is

the season in &hich Yeats described nature and the symbol of the period of his life he &as $oin$

throu$h. The poet &roteThe Wild &ans at )oole/ from the perspecti#e of a man &ho &as already

mature and the melancholic tone that &e can find in it is caused by his consciousness about the

passin$ of the time and the fact that his youth &as $one. And alon$ &ith this loss of youth, his

dreams and lo#e for ;aud, a &oman he lo#ed for most of his life, &ho married the Irish patriot

ohn ;acBride after reectin$ Yeats. The poets( melancholy is #ery clearly present in the poem

since he use no symbols to encrypt it < And no& my heart is sore/21. is pain can be noticed as

&ell in the reference the poet made to the beautiful s&ans, &hich, in my point of #ie&, constitute a

&ay the poet found to represent the possibility of lo#e, dreams and youth that end up disappearin$.

Yeats described them as beautiful, brilliant and as if their hearts ha#e not $ro& old/ 2!1, as

creatures that are abo#e all the limits that time creates. In spite of this, after readin$ the last #erses

of the poem, &e reali+e that those mysterious and mar#elous s&ans #anish in some point. This

metaphoric disappearance could be interpreted as that lo#er(s lo#e also end up disappearin$7".

Autumn is the perfect season of the year and maturity the best a$e in the poet(s life to ma'e a

reflection about his life, surrounded by the beautiful Irish landscape that could be compared to a

mirror of his o&n life< Ender the 9ctober t&ili$ht the &ater@ ;irrors a still s'yF/27>. This

u%taposition that Yeats ma'es in the first stan+a of the poem bet&een the motionless and still,

&hich can be interpreted as a symbol of death and the mo#ement and flo& as a symbol of the

passin$ of the time and life< /Epon the brimmin$ &ater amon$ the stones@Are nine and fifty

s&ans/25>6. As &e can notice in these first lines &here the binary of life and death is presented,


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there is a stron$ contrastbet&een the trees, flo&in$ &ater and beautiful s&ans, all of them symbols

of #itality, and the dry &oodland paths, stones or mirror representin$ the lifeless.

The introduction of the s&ans in the poem is mystified throu$h an atmosphere created by t&ili$ht

and its reflection in the &ater, &hich functions li'e a mirror and pro#ides the reader &ith a

disconcertin$ and beautiful literary ima$e. The s&ans are presented as sublime creatures &hich

ha#e characteristics of di#ine, sacred, immortal bein$s &hich seem eternally youn$ to the poet, &ho

described them as creatures that don(t $ro& old< /clamorous &in$s/211,/brilliant

creatures/21!,/The bell>beat of their &in$s abo#e my head,@Trod &ith a li$hter tread/214>18/Their

heart ha#e not $ro&n old/2!!, eli$ht men(s eyes/2!3. The mythic subect of the s&an is used

by Yeats follo&in$ not only classic but also )eltic tradition, &here the s&an &as considered a

di#ine creature. The poet mentioned fifty>nine s&ans, a #ery concrete number of them that

contributes to create a ma$ical, eni$matic halo around them, ma'in$ the s&ans(s description

mysterious or ma$ical and e#en related to the occult, carefully studied by Yeats in A Vision and by

0eor$e ;ills arper in Yeats and the Occult. espite bein$ more superficially treated in his poems,

throu$h them, the reader understands that the ma$ical has a #ital importance in Yeats( &or's< W.B.

ad to create for himself an ima$inati#e belief that included, not only his o&n #ersion of 0od,

=reedom, and Immortality, but esoteric doctrines and ma$ical practices./2;ills, !6.

)ontrastin$ly, in The Wild &ans at )oole/ the poetic #oice sho&s a clear consciousness of his

o&n a$in$ and humanity8. :ineteen years had passed since William Butler Yeats( first #isit to )oole, a #ery

si$nificant place for the poet, &here he spent lon$ periods of time because it &as an inspirational

location &here the beauty of the Irish landscape &as appreciable. Yeats consciousness of his

temporality and mortality, the irreco#erable youth that had already passed in his life, also called

memento mori/ is present in The Wild &ans at )oole/. The fact that the poet &as almost t&enty

years older ma'e the poem(s tone melancholic, opposin$ the poet(s &eariness to the s&ans, &hich

are


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con*uest, unli'e the poet himself, &ho thou$ht he &as condemned to solitude and $radual decay!.

Throu$hout nineteen years, the s&ans 'ept returnin$ to )oole(s la'e as Yeats himself, but &hile

the poet &as $ro&in$ old, the s&ans al&ays seemed youn$ and beautiful and this $a#e them a

mystic character of di#ine, ma$ical bein$s that Yeats admired and en#ied at the same time.

:e#ertheless, their final disappearance left the poet alone and are a reminder of the ephemerality of

life, since e#en the cyclically returnin$ s&ans could not return someday or Yeats may not be there to

see them. is life(s cycle, as the s&ans( cycle &ould e#entually come to an end someday. The poet

seems topursue eternity, e#en if it is impossible to obtain for a human bein$. This dialectic of

eternity and mortality, desire and reality is or$ani+ed in an harmonic &ay throu$h the s&ans cyclical

lea#in$ and returnin$ until the time &hen they &ould not return is the &ay Yeats has of describin$

the cycle of life and human history as &ell. Throu$h his poem, the poet represents the indi#idual

&ho as an indi#idual s&an a$es and dies, &hile the s&ans, li'e human'ind continue to e%ist.

The relationship of the s&an &ith the cyclical is also present in Yeats( poem -eda

and the &an/,a poem &ritten in 13!7 &hich belon$s to Yeats( poem collection boo'The

Tower213!8. )oncernin$ its formal proprieties, it is a traditional sonnet formed by fourteen lines in

iambic pentameter. The separate structure of the poem is ?etrarchan since it is composed by an

octa#e and a final se%tet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB )) G=0G=0. Yeats chose the form of the

sonnet, an e%ceptional form in his poetry, in order to ma'e his poem contrast &ith the classical lo#e

sonnets, in &hich lo#e &as al&ays ideali+ed and platonic. In the classical lo#e sonnets, &omen &ere

not sta$$erin$/2! ,helpless/2, &ith terrified #a$ue fin$ers/25 or o mastered by the brute

blood in the air,/217. This use of a classical meter re#olutionarily chan$in$ the male and female

roles, made this poem contro#ersial and modern.

-eda and the &an/ is not set in Ireland or in )oole(s ?ar'. There is no definition of the scenery,

the only clue the reader has to locate this poem is that it ta'es place in -eda(s room but the settin$ of

the poem is mythical, since the action occurs in a mystified dar' place. This #a$ueness of the spatial


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description is a form to dra& the reader(s attention to the action and the importance and

conse*uences of it for an entire ci#ili+ation, or in this case, for t&o, the Ancient 0ree' and oman.

-eda and The &an/ is the introductory poem to the o#e or &an/ section ofA Vision, &here

the poet de#elops his cyclical theory of history< I ima$ine the annunciation that founded 0reece as

made to -eda, rememberin$ that they sho&ed in a partan Temple, strun$ up to the roof as a holy

relic, and unhatched e$$s of hersFand that from one of her e$$s came -o#e and the other

War./2Yeats, !68. Yeats describes the annunciation made to -eda inA Visionas the the 1st?hase/

of an entire era, the era of Ancient 0reece and Ancient ome.In 0ree' mytholo$y, accordin$ to a

#ersion of the myth, -eda &as Tyndareus(s &ife and Heus raped or seduced her in the form of a

s&an in the same ni$ht she slept &ith her husband, from this union, t&o e$$s &ere

hatched, from &here Heus( sons )astor and ?ollu% 2?olydeuces &ere born. 9ne of them mortal,

and the other immortal, Heus(s son. But as a conse*uence of the lo#e for each other the 0emini

t&ins became mortal>immortal. This presence of mortal>immortality in the myth and its direct

connection to lo#e, ma'es me relate it to The Wild &ans at )oole/, &here the poet(s lament for

his mortality made him create an immortal poetic &or'. In this poem, the cyclical sense of life is

opposed to the indi#idual, represented by the poetic #oice, &ho e%presses his frustration for bein$

conscious of formin$ part of that collecti#e cycle of history and cruelly a$in$ at the same time. e

suffers for the certainty of not reco#erin$ his youth or lo#e and feels the ephemerality of life. e

&ould die in some years or decades, and therefore, he &ould be unable to see the s&ans a$ain e#en

if the s&ans &ould continue returnin$ and human'ind &ould continue e%istin$.

In both poems, s&ans are described as di#ine, e#erlastin$ and po&erful creatures. In The Wild

&ans at )oole/ thisadmiration is more focused in their harmonic relation &ith nature, e#en if the

dus' creates a mystic atmosphere,the s&ans are deified or the sound of their &in$s a clamor or

bell>beat. In -eda and the &an/ the s&an symboli+es a male 0od, Heus, &hich is mysterious,

#iolent and po&erful. There is an important contrast bet&een the &hiteness of the s&an and the

obscurity of the room in the reader(s mind, reinforcin$ the notion of the di#ine enterin$ the mortal


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&orld< A sudden blo&< the $reat &in$s beatin$ still@Abo#e the sta$$erin$ $irl her thi$hs caressed

by the dar' &ebs@her nape cau$ht in his bill@ e holds her helpless breast upon his breast/21> The

helplessness of -eda &ants to reflect that nothin$ could be done a$ainst 0od(s &ill. -i'e in The

econd )omin$/ the di#ine $oes beyond the mortal(s po&er. -eda has no option but lettin$ it

happen8 The reader can(t 'no& if the possession is ust physical, but it seems that Heus also

enters her soul, her heart. If &e pay attention to the endin$ of the poem, to the last t&o lines, &e see

ho& the poet &onders if Heus has transmitted not only his po&er but also his 'no&led$e to -eda

durin$ his possession. There is a su$$estion of itF id she put on his 'no&led$e &ith his po&er@

Before the indifferent bea' could let her dropD 21>15.In my opinion, these last lines are the

e#idence for the mystic connotations of this poem, because they su$$est a spiritual union, a

transference of 'no&led$e and empo&erment characteristic of the mystical poetry. The form of a

s&an &hich Heus had adopted is described as feathered $lory/26is a clear reference to di#inity, a

di#inity &hich is enterin$ the mortal &orld or 0od &hose actions &ould chan$e human'ind(s

destiny.The symbolic form of a rape, of se%ual possession is a &ay that mystic poetry adopts to

describe the feelin$ of bein$ united to 0od. In panish poetry, &e can find these allusions in an

uan de -a )ru+ or anta Teresa de esus poems. an uan de la )ru+(s poems, for instance, ha#e

been interpretedas reli$ious or erotic poetry, especially his &or's Cntico espiritual 2138 and

:oche oscura del alma/21548>1587 &here &e can find similar descriptions to -eda and the

&an/.

The erotic o#ertones of the Italian enaissance are brou$ht bac' by William Butler Yeats to the

poem, &ho continues that poetic tradition but ma'in$ these o#ertones much more e%plicit and

#iolent< A shudder in the loins en$enders there@ The bro'en &all, the burnin$ roof and to&er@And

A$amemnon dead./ 23>11 In this poem, Yeats describes ho& the death of A$amemnon and Troy(s

destruction are conse*uences of the act of the rape by Heus the brute blood of the air/217 to -eda .

In the 13!"s, William Butler Yeats &as becomin$ increasin$ly estran$ed from public opinion in


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Ireland and as a conse*uence of this, the poet &rote this poem in order to challen$e and pro#o'e the

people &ho &ere critici+in$ him. Itserotic o#ertones made -eda and the &an/ contro#ersial and

e#en sub#ersi#e for many readers of the time, somethin$ that William Butler Yeats &anted, since

the poem &as a response to the $o#ernment initiati#es such as censorship after the )i#il War< /e

became increasin$ly embattled and deliberately combati#e, and enoyed outra$in$ ublin opinionF

he did so &ith the publication of -eda and the &an./2o&es and elly,1. In a note that Yeats

&rote to his editor, Yeats e%pressed &hy he &rote this poem &ith this #iolent se%uality


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the reli$ious e#elation to ohn, &here )hrist(s econd )omin$ is heralded by the arri#al of the

Beast of the Apocalypse. A beast to &hom the poet ma'es reference in the last lines of the

poem!!. The Beast of Apocalypse(s apparition is announced but the fi$ure of )hristianity

doesn(t accompany it anymore. The )hristian era had ended or failed in William Butler Yeats( notion

of the future, e#en if it hadn(t disappeared in Yeats( times or e#en in our contemporary society. There

is a stron$ criticism of the )hristian era in Yeats( poem< but no& I 'no&@ That t&enty centuries of

stony sleep@Were #e%ed to ni$htmare by a roc'in$ cradle/218>!". Throu$h this #erses, Yeats is

e%pressin$ ho& human'ind had been in a symbolical state of sleep, alienated by )hristianity. The

ne& annunciation &ould suppose a #iolent end of this prolon$ed alienation and a ne& be$innin$,

&hich, as in -eda and the &an/ is fascinatin$ and horrible at the same time. And this lac' of a

fi$ure is a &ay the poet has to e%press that the ne& era &ould be completely different and ne&. The

notion of this cycle has been omitted by elen Jendler, &ho defined the poem in a too synthetic

&ay, o#ersimplifyin$ it< The econd )omin$/ an alto$ether more archetypal poem poem about the

archetypal poem about the turn of history to&ards #iolence/2Jendler, 43.G#en if Yeats describes

an attac' of a rou$h beast/ 2!1in &hich the reli$ious or di#ine also appears, in#erted in a

terrifyin$ &ay and $i#in$ ne& meanin$s to the reli$ious notions of re#elation/ or econd

)omin$/, hepresents the Apocalypse and its #iolence to sho& ho& the )hristian he$emony is

comin$ to an end and ho& a ne& &orld order or era &ould start. The cyclic sense of this poem is

missed in elen Jendler(s description of the poem, a cycle of life and human history that I found in

it and &hich has been the maor connection I found bet&een The econd )omin$/,The Wild

&ans at )oole/ and -eda and the &an/. In the contrary, I thin' that :orman effares presented

the poem considerin$ the cyclical notion in it, because he e%plained that this announcement or

econd )omin$ is a &ay of endin$ &ith the )hristian $od and replacin$ it for a ne& one< The

poem &hich prophesies the arri#al of a ne& $od ta'es its title from )hristian doctrine./2effares

!"1. The ne& di#ine fi$ure or e#en the possibility of it is deliberately #a$ue in Yeats( poem,


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reflectin$ the doubtfulness or indecision characteristic of modernity.

The econd )omin$/(s openin$ presents the notion of the cyclical symboli+ed throu$h the

turnin$ in the &idenin$ $yre, &hich could be paralleled to the returnin$ of the s&ans e#ery autumn

in The Wild &ans at )oole/!. In these lines, Yeats presented the cycle of life in a perpetual motion as a force

&hich escapes human control. In a footnote of the poem, the critic ames ?ethica e%plains &hat the

$yres &ere for Yeats and ho& he used them to describe the cycles of history


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"andand to a scene of ante Ali$heri(s#n$ernoat the same time.

The description 9(onnell made about the cyclical in this poem as &ell, confirms the importance

of this poem as the symbol of the end of an era and start of another one. ;oreo#er, it sho&s ho&

-eda and the &an/ and The econd )omin$/ are stron$ly connected, since the s&an that rapes

-eda is the a#atar o manifestation of the be$innin$ of an entire era, a manifestation unclear in The

econd )omin$/ as a conse*uence of bein$ set in modern times, &hen e#en the poet could not

'no& ho& the pa$an era that &ould replace the )hristian one &ould be li'e. Yeats had a theory in

&hich e#ery t&o thousand years, an era &as destroyed or ended to start a ne& era &hich &as totally

opposite to the pre#ious one< In those cycles, each successi#e ci#ili+ation has #alues that are

diametrically opposed to those of the precedin$ ci#ili+ation, and the onset of each ne& ci#ili+ation

is announced by the sudden manifestation of an a#atar, such as elen of Troy or )hrist./29(onnell

87. This usa$e of mythical or reli$ious fi$ures of both )hristian and pa$an reli$ions and cultures to

describe modern e%periences or e#en to describe the future, as in The econd )omin$/. is

capacity of ma'in$ a poem considered sub#ersi#e and ne& usin$ an ancient myth li'e -eda and the

&an is &hat made Yeats one of the most remar'able modern poet of the !"thcentury.

In conclusion, e#en if the three poems I had analy+ed belon$ to different poem collections of

William Butler Yeats, the notion of human life and human history as cyclical is present in the three

of them, as the poems( reader can notice throu$h the scatter &heelin$ in $reat bro'en rin$s/211,

the annunciation made to -eda as the be$innin$ of the era &hich lasted until the )hristian era and

the symbol of the $yre continually turnin$. Yeats &rote these poems in his maturity and sho&n his

'no&led$e of a &ide ran$e of cultural references by usin$ their multiple symbols and ima$ery and

rene&in$ them, presentin$ them as somethin$ ne&, as if they &ere part of a literary cycle. Throu$h

the u%taposition of life and death, destruction and re$eneration, lo#e and loss, indi#idual and

collecti#e, *uietness and #iolence, youth and maturity, nature and ci#ili+ation, beauty and horror,

reality and desire, the di#ine and the human, the immortal and mortal the poet pro#ides us &ith his


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notion of history and life throu$h these poems.

Wor's )ited


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9(onnell, William . The %oetr& o$ Willia' (utler Yeats) an introduction.:e&

Yor', En$ar, 1386. 87.

;ills, 0eor$e arper. Yeats and The Occult. )anada,The ;acmillan ?ress

-td,1345.!6.

o&es, ;arorie and elly, ohn.The Ca'rid*e Co'panion to W.( Yeats.

)ambrid$e. )ambrid$e Eni#ersity ?ress, !""6.1.

Yeats, William Butler. A Vision. -ondon. ;acmillan and co, 136!. !68.

?ethica, ames. Yeats+s %oetr&, !ra'a and %rose. :e& Yor',W.W. :orton K

)ompany, Inc, !""". 46.

effares, A. :orman.A reised and e-plained edition o$ A COMM/TARY O/ T0

CO""CT! %OMS O1 W.() YATS.on$ on$, The ;acmillan ?ress -td,

138. !"1> !7.

Jendler, elen./The later poetry/The Ca'rid*e Co'panion to W.( Yeats.

)ambrid$e. )ambrid$e Eni#ersity ?ress, !""6.43.

The cyclical in W.B. Yeats's poetry.

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