Yeats' Love of Ireland
Throughout Yeats' poetry, he is constantly referring to, with veiled metaphors or otherwise, his home country; Ireland. Yet his love for Ireland is not as simple as it could be. He has criticisms and anxieties for his home country, which are eloquently displayed in his poetry.Despite the complexity of Yeats' love for Ireland, there are references to his pure adoration of Ireland and its people. In the, largely political, poem "To Ireland in the Coming Times", Yeats describes Ireland and her people as "the angelic clan". This pure and simple love of Ireland lies at the base of all Yeats' concerns for his adored country, and we can thus understand why he is so worried about Ireland and her future, for you can only really worry about something that you truly love: One of the purest of Yeats' loves was that for rural Ireland. He spent as much time as he could in the countryside of Ireland, in places such as Coole Park, where he wrote a melancholy poem called "The Wild Swans at Coole". In this poem his love for rural Ireland is betrayed. He uses simple and direct language which conveys his simple love for Ireland's landscape, this is in contrast to many of his poems, about mor
e ambiguous subjects, which are often difficult to follow, inaccessible and complicated. This is not the case here, however, he describes the trees as being in their "autumn beauty" and the swans in the water as "Mysterious, beautiful". "The Lake of Innisfree" also portrays Yeats love for rural Ireland, he describes "the purple glow" at noon and the "water lapping". It is in this poem that we are introduced to the fantasy vision Yeats held of the Irish peasant. Yeats was never too sure as to what approach to take towards the Irish Civil War, and also war in general. He never resolves that question, but once again, he explores the simplistic approach of the Irish peasant soldier. Yeats sees hi as "affable" and without any political persuasions. Yeats appears to envy the man without any side, the soldiers who just fight without thought to the wider scheme, the complete contrast to Yeats, who always demanded time to think and contemplate, and never resolved the question as to when one should act. This fear of committing to a single cause always dogged Yeats and his ideals. The only real political ideal, that he ever seems to have committed to, was hatred of the English. Through his poetry, Yeats tried to simplify his feelings for Ireland, and to simplify the complicated political situation. In the same way he saw the peasant as being the key to a simple life, Yeats tries to simplify the present day confusion in politics with his poetry, often unsuccessfully. Yeats' love for Ireland is multi-faceted and genuine. His adoration for rural Ireland with his view of the idealistic peasant, and its spiritual weather led him to become deeply worried for his country's future.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1581
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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