Time and Cycle of History in Yeats's Poetry

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the themes of the passage of time and the cycle of history in Yeats's poems, "Sailing to Byzantium" and "The Second Coming", and cites passages from the poems to illustrate these themes.

From the Paper:

"According to Louise Bogan, the poetry of William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), one of the most prestigious and well-admired of all the Irish poets of the late 19th and early decades of the 20th centuries, "came to be an expert at the dramatic presentation of thoughts concerning love, death. . . and (the) hidden meaning of all things, not only in the form of a philosopher's speculation. . . but also in the. . . rowdy measures of a fool, an old man's song" (640). Yet when compared to his Irish contemporaries, Yeats is radically different, due to his complex sense of responsibility to his art. For Yeats, versification served as the basis for his creative opinions on a vast number of subjects, especially those that pertained to his beloved Ireland which during the time that "Sailing to Byzantium" and "The Second Coming" were written was embroiled in much political, religious and social chaos that appears to be expressed in these two poems. In addition, it is obvious that Yeats? ideas and suggestions as contained in these poems provide a poetical picture of his world and may even be comparable to our modern setting despite the passage of more than seventy-five years since their composition."

More papers on Time and Cycle of History in Yeats's Poetry:

• Analytical Essay # 142230 : "Romanticism In Yeats' Poetry"
• Analytical Essay # 142243 : "Romanticism in Yeats' Poetry"
• Book Review # 100064 : "Cycle of Life in 'Night Flying Woman'"

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