William Butler Yeats His Life and Poetry. Winner of 1923 Nobel Prize in literature （ 1865-1939 ）

William Butler Yeats

His Life and Poetry

• Winner of 1923 Nobel Prize in literature

（ 1865-1939 ）

Yeats memorial in Sligo

Down by the Salley Gardens Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;

She passed the salley gardens with little snow‑white feet, She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree; But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

  In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand. She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs; But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

by   W. B. Yeats

“an attempt to reconstruct an old song … by an old peasant woman in County Sligo”

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and dayI hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,I hear it in the deep heart's core.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

theme

style

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悦诗风吟

Lake Isle of Innisfree

Celtic Nations

heather

“noon a purple glow”

• I will arise and go to my father.

(Luke 15:18 of the New Testament)

Thoreau’s Walden Or Life In The

Woods Here is Thoreau’s Walden Pond, historic and current. He built a little cabin by this lake and planted beans just as Yeats wanted to.

……

On a lone winter evening, when the frostHas wrought a silence, from the stove there shrillsThe Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

John Keats, “On The Grasshopper And Cricket”

(1795 - 1821)

Meter

I will arise and go now, [PAUSE] and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, [PAUSE] of clay and wattles made;

Phonetic Length I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and dayI hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Pause I will arise and go now, [PAUSE] and go to Innisfree, [PAUSE]

And a small cabin build there, [PAUSE] of clay and wattles made; [PAUSE]

Nine bean-rows will I have there, [PAUSE] a hive for the honey-bee, [PAUSE]

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.[PAUSE]

And I shall have some peace there, [PAUSE] for peace comes dropping slow, [PAUSE]

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; [PAUSE]

There midnight's all a glimmer, [PAUSE] and noon a purple glow, [PAUSE]

And evening full of the linnet's wings. [PAUSE]

I will arise and go now, [PAUSE] for always night and dayI hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; [PAUSE]

While I stand on the roadway, [PAUSE] or on the pavements grey, [PAUSE]

I hear it in the deep heart's core. [PAUSE]

Rhyme and Other Major Sound Devices (Stanza 1)

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; 

Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

Rhyme and Other Major Sound Devices (Stanza 2)

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,  And evening full of the linnet's wings.

Rhyme and Other Major Sound Devices (Stanza 3)

I will arise and go now, for always night and day, I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart's core.

ThemeClose to nature as a hermit. Tired of the hubbub

of his day, Yeats sought to escape into an ideal

"fairyland" where he could live in peace as a

hermit and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Another Possible Theme

The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward.

---James Joyce, “The Dead”

When You Are Old

　 When you are old, and gray and full of sleep And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep ； How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true ； But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead, And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

？

(1866-1953)

SAILING TO BYZANTIUM• I

That is no country for old men. The youngIn one another's arms, birds in the trees-- Those dying generations -- at their song,The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer longWhatever is begotten, born, and dies.Caught in that sensual music all neglectMonuments of unageing intellect.

• IIAn aged man is but a paltry thing,A tattered coat upon a stick, unlessSoul clap its hands and sing, and louder singFor every tatter in its mortal dress,Nor is there singing school but studyingMonuments of its own magnificence;And therefore I have sailed the seas and comeTo the holy city of Byzantium.

The First Period of Yeats’s Poetic Creation

Last decades of the19th –century Style: delicate with natural imagery ， dream-like atmophere and ， musica

l

beauty

“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” 　　

The Second Period of Yeats’s Poetic Creation

First two decades of the 20th century Theme: realistic and concrete themes on human problems Style: metaphysical wit and symbolic vision "Easter of 1916" and "New Era"　

The Third Period of Yeats’s Poetic Creation

Over fifty Theme: eternal beauty could only live in the realm of art; great subjects of dichotomy Style: tough ， complex and symbolical "Sailing to Byzantium" "Leda and the Swan" and "Monuments of Unaging intellect"