{Journal Entry #11} I missed this class, so I'll just talk about my time in Ireland instead...

Here I am, being extra on my last day at University College Cork.

I missed the class on Yeats because I was sick, but as I spent a month in Cork doing a Summer School in Irish Studies (a.k.a history and literature of the 19th/20th century), of which one whole week was dedicated to Yeats, I feel entitled to discuss him anyways [insert awkward happy-ish face].

So here's what you need to know to understand Yeats:

1. He was obsessed with age and virility.

2. He was part of the Celtic revival, a literary and political movement that focused on recuperating (and/or reconstructing/reinventing) the Celtic past in search of an Irish identity that was distinct from the British.

3. While he was writing, there was a whole (and shaky) independence movement going on, so there are a lot of references to historical events, heroes of the past and present, and politics in general.

4. Likewise, his poetry is filled with references to Irish/Celtic mythology and folklore, not only in terms of imagery but also in rhythm and overall form.

5. #3 and #4 often appear together. 

Think, politically oriented epic fairy tales, and you got it.

I don't want to make it sound like he was a simpleton: he was not. Nowadays his poetry is often seen as overtly chauvinistic and self-aggrandizing, but his use of language and imagery was masterful, and I do enjoy reading and decoding his work.

One of my favorites is this one:

This is one of his more straightforward pieces, but you can see his esoteric inclinations in how the first stanza begins with the concrete image of "you" "nodding by the fire", and ends with the dreamlike image of "Love" having fled, "and paced upon the mountains overhead / and hid his face amid a crowd of stars". It's a sweet nod to Shakespeare, Yeats' "take down his book / and slowly read" akin to Shakespeare's "so long lives this, and this gives life to thee" in Sonnet 18. The power of poetry as a preserver of love, feeling and, of course, youth. 

Now, if you know the context of the poem, it gets creepier. You see, Yeats was in love with actress and revolutionary Maud Gonne. Yeats asked her to marry him five times, and then, years later, he asked her daughter Iseult to marry him (only to get rejected too). He then married another 25-year-old young woman. I believe he was about fifty at the time. 

Basically, this is Yeats' "only I loved you properly ("And loved your beauty with love false or true, / But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you") and you let me go so when you're old remember me and how I left to live my life because you rejected me, and feel sad ("And bending down beside glowing bars / Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled)". But it's beautifully written, so we'll give him this one. 

And hey, history is filled with creepy geniuses, is it not? In poetry, as in all art really, sometimes the less you know, the better.

Bonus fact: Yeats is a writers' favorite, and there are countless works that take their titles from his poetry, e.g. Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Things Fall Apart, Mere Anarchy, Dancer from the Dance.