Transcription
[Music] Hello everybody. Today's video is on a very major late Victorian poet, W.B. Yeats—William Butler Yeats. He was born in 1865. In which country? Everybody knows—Ireland.
It was a time when Ireland was ruled by Britain, and Ireland was fighting for its freedom. The Irish independence movement, the Irish revolutionary war, was happening at the same time. The Irish literary revival was also happening, and W.B. Yeats played a very major role in the Irish literary revival. Now, Yeats was one of the founders of the Symbolist movement also in Britain. Symbolism already was being employed by William Blake—not William Butler Yeats first, but William Blake. He was a transitional poet. There was symbolism in the Romantic poets also, and now in the Victorian period, W.B. Yeats was interested in mysticism, occultism, religions—fascinated him. Based on all this, he developed a Symbolist style. *Symbolist Movement in Poetry* was a book that was published at that time by Arthur Symons, and W.B. Yeats, later T.S. Eliot, were all influenced by this book, *Symbolist Movement in Poetry*. And this book introduced French Symbolism in England. Okay, so we will see what kind of a writer W.B. Yeats was.
Very important to know: Ireland was a Catholic country. You know, England was Protestant—England was Anglican, isn't it? But Ireland is Catholic, and W.B. Yeats belonged to the Protestant minority in Ireland. Now that is very interesting. Uh, W.B. Yeats was a Protestant in Ireland—that was not easy—and he was also interested in mysticism and occultism, spiritualism, etc. His wife—in his middle age, he married Georgie Hyde-Lees. He met her in an occult group. But all of you might know, before he married Georgie Hyde-Lees, William Butler Yeats was famously in love with Maud Gonne. Maud Gonne was an heiress, a very beautiful heiress, and she was a nationalist. She rebuffed Yeats's love; she did not reciprocate it. And, uh, Yeats wrote much of his poetry about Maud Gonne. She—it was probably good that she rebuffed his love, because that inspired him to write.
Now, like Maud Gonne, W.B. Yeats was also deeply involved in Irish politics. It was in 1922, much after Yeats started writing, that Ireland became a free state. W.B. Yeats died in 1939. He was a very important official in the Irish Free State, but much of his poetry was written before Ireland got independence. And W.B. Yeats also was famously critical of the Irish nationalist movement. He was pessimistic of the political scenario in Ireland; that means he was a conservative in politics. He was not eager, uh, to have revolutions coming in without any preparation. He was a conservative.
Yeats's career can be divided into three phases. In the early phase, Yeats is interested in Irish history, Irish folklore. The first book that was printed by Yeats or published by Yeats was *Mosada*, a dramatic poem, 1886. About that time, he was writing many poems also. His early poems came at this time. We will talk about his poetry presently, but before that, let me just give you an overview of his life. So he started writing poems about Irish, uh, history and folklore and culture. And in 1899, along with Lady Gregory—Lady Gregory was a very important aristocratic woman and a public figure at that time—in 1899, along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn, W.B. Yeats founded the Abbey Theatre. The Abbey Theatre suddenly did not come into being one fine day. It developed from, uh, various theaters that formed as a result of the Irish literary revival. The Abbey Theatre was instrumental in propagating Irish nationalism. Did you know, guys, when I went on a literary tour of England and Ireland, I went and watched a performance of *Ulysses* in the Abbey Theatre. It was unforgettable. You should also go. Get that assistant professor job, save some money at the earliest, soon after the pandemic, go and do a literary tour of all the museums and authors' places, etc., in England. There are so many. It will change our understanding of English literature, I'm telling you. So yeah, it's founded the Abbey Theatre.
You probably know that Yeats was also a playwright. He wrote poetic plays. And did you know Yeats was inspired by Asian theatre—Chinese and Japanese theatre and poetry? And you'll be amazed to know that Yeats was inspired by his own secretary or assistant, who was none other than Ezra Pound. Ezra Pound worked with—there were like 20 years difference between them—there was like—and Ezra Pound introduced Yeats to Noh theatre of Japan, Chinese poetry, etc. Japanese Noh theatre made use of dance, music, masks—all these things Yeats also experimented with in the Abbey Theatre. Another very important figure was J.M. Synge. You know him—very important playwright—and the Abbey Theatre grew out of the Irish Literary Theatre. It was associated with the Irish National Dramatic Society, Irish National Theatre Society. Entire history I have given in this *Encyclopedia of British Literature*, Volume 2, revised edition. Many of you have it, and you know this is an amazing resource, so I'm using this for my videos so that you will get all these good points. And did you know W.B. Yeats was also involved in the founding of another club called the Rhymers' Club? The Rhymers' Club involved brilliant writers like Lionel Johnson, Ernest Dowson—they were important writers at this time—Ernest Rhys also, Ernest Rhys. So I have given a whole list of people involved here because these are the important ones. Arthur Symons was also there—Arthur Symons, who is that—the author of *Symbolist Movement in Literature*.
Now, guys, uh, towards his later career, he became interested in the occult and married Georgie Hyde-Lees. But before that, in the middle of his career, what did Yeats do? Yeats wrote Modernist poems. This is the time of *The Second Coming*, *Easter, 1916*, *Byzantium* poems, etc. The Modernist poems came in the middle career. Will you remember? Don't worry, we will talk about the poems, just wait. Towards the end of his career, he was interested in occultism. He developed his own theory of history. He talked about Gaia's conical shaped, circular movement is there in history. You know, every two thousand years history repeats itself as a cycle. You know that, right? So all these ideas he developed towards the end of his career. In about 1916, *Easter, 1916*, is what he wrote at that time. That is what you're thinking. Wait, wait, wait—that's not what I'm going to say. In about 1916, W.B. Yeats bought a small castle—stone castle. I have been there—so beautiful small castle there. It is called Thoor Ballylee. There he stayed and wrote his greatest poems, and this castle is the symbol in his poetry called *The Tower*. Did you know *The Tower* is also the name of a famous poetry collection by W.B. Yeats? Thoor Ballylee castle or tower and its winding stair—there is a winding stair inside to go up to the roof. Those two are important symbols in Yeats. They symbolize tradition, history, Gaia—the winding stair is the gyre, or the cyclical movement of history. Now, W.B. Yeats's wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees, was an occultist. She was like a medium. She suddenly went into a trance and started writing on her own without rational involvement—automatic writing. This is called automatic writing—without rational involvement. Many people did that at this time—many avant-garde people. Georgie Hyde-Lees also did that—automatic writing. And this automatic writing W.B. Yeats studied, and he wrote the book out of it—wow—that is called *A Vision*. It is a prose work, uh, based on 4,000 pages of Georgie Hyde-Lees's automatic writing—4,000 pages—wow. It comprises this book, *A Vision*, published in 1937, just before he died, comprises his theories of life and history. Did you get that, guys?
Long before he published *A Vision*, in the year 1923, W.B. Yeats—God, tell me what—he got the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1923. That was 10 years after—10 years after Rabindranath Tagore got the Nobel Prize in Literature. And incidentally, W.B. Yeats had written the introduction to *Gitanjali*—wow, what a connection. And then he was the first Irishman to get the Nobel Prize, and the Nobel citation said that he showed the spirit of a whole nation in his work. In 1922-23, the Irish Civil War is at its peak, and he was appointed, uh, senator at that time—senator. And Yeats died in 1939, the year in which the Second World War began. And on his tomb was there an epitaph—an epitaph—a few lines of poetry on his tomb taken from his own poem, *Under Ben Bulben*. *Under Ben Bulben*. What are the lines? "Cast a cold eye on life, on death. Horseman, pass by." Those are the lines that form his epitaph.
Now let us talk about Yeats's poems. Are you ready? I told you Yeats's early poetry was about Irish folklore, Irish traditional verse. He wrote drawing upon myth and folklore. He wrote in a Pre-Raphaelite tone. Yeats was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites at this time, and he wrote in a self-consciously ornate, descriptive manner. His major poems of this time are *The Wanderings of Oisin*—*The Wanderings of Oisin* is an epic poem, okay—and *The Countess Cathleen* and *Various Legends and Lyrics*. All the entire list is given here: *The Wind Among the Reeds*, etc. These were all written in the end of the 19th century. All right. And then he moved into the middle period. In the middle period, he wrote very Modernist poems. A very major collection of this time is *Michael Robartes and the Dancer*. Have you heard it? Came in 1921. *Michael Robartes and the Dancer* contains very major Modernist poems, like—I will tell you the beginning of the poem, you tell me the end of the poem, okay? Title: *Easter, 1916*. Then *The Second Coming*. *The Second Coming*, *A Prayer for My Daughter*—these are all Modernist poems that talk about the chaos and fragmentation of contemporary life, the lack of spirituality in contemporary life, and he laments this lack of spirituality. He longs for a unity. What is this? This is like the theme of *The Waste Land*. Same Modernist themes were there in all these poems. And then he published the collection *The Tower*. Remember Thoor Ballylee? And here contained the poem—it contained the poem *Sailing to Byzantium*. *Sailing to Byzantium* and *Byzantium* are companion poems, and they are both Modernist in theme, okay? And he has written other important collections like *Words for Music Perhaps* and *Other Poems*, etc. It contains *Byzantium*.
Now let me talk to you about these major poems of the middle period. *Easter, 1916*, refers to the Irish rebellion. One Irish rebellious movement was there in 1916 during Easter time. The rebellion was unsuccessful; many people even died. The rebels were executed for treason. Oh, it did not succeed. Yeats had not taken the Irish revolutionaries very seriously at that time, and he is rethinking on some of them. He is criticizing them actually, and there is a famous stone metaphor—a stone metaphor that he presents in *Easter, 1916*—a metaphor where he talks about the stone under a stream—at the bottom of a stream there is a—there are stones. These stones will lie there forever, immovable. Like that, the work that the Irish revolutionaries are doing will remain there forever. That is a famous stone metaphor. And what is the famous closing line of *Easter, 1916*? I'm waiting for you to type in the chat box. Tell me. *Easter, 1916* ends with the line, "A terrible beauty is born." That is a very Modernist statement referring to the gory battles of history. *The Second Coming* is a very famous poem. I'm sure all of you know it. First published in—you won't believe this—*The Dial*, the—remember *The Dial*—Transcendentalist magazine. *The Second Coming of Christ* is the title here, but ironically at the end of the poem he is talking about the coming of the Antichrist. What is this world going towards? Is it the Antichrist who is going to be born? That is the theme, okay? The speaker is describing at the beginning of the poem a nightmarish scene. It is like horrible chaos that he is describing, where the worst are full of passionate intensity, but the best lack all conviction. Best people have no conviction. The worst people are full of passionate intensity. And at this time he is seeing a—a vast image of a sphinx rising out of the spiritus mundi. Spiritus mundi is the whole ocean of human spirits. Out of that ocean of human spirits, a sphinx is rising from his two thousand years' stony sleep. The gyre is coming—2000-year turn is coming. And then at that time what is happening? Is a savior going to be born, or the Antichrist? That is the painful thought that the speaker has at the end of *The Second Coming*—famous poem that you should read. Do not just end with this video. This video is a beginning—beginning of a journey into the greatest works of literature. You're going to understand deeply, enjoy, fall in love with literature, write exams brilliantly, pass with high marks and JRF, become assistant professors—henna right now.
*A Prayer for My Daughter*: Yeats's daughter Anne is born. Annie is born, and she's lying in a cradle. He—us—looking at the storm that is raging outside. The storm represents what? The storm represents the war, the battles, and Yeats is talking about, uh, his daughter, his, uh, aspiration for his daughter to be married into a very traditional family. She must be protected from these storms. That is the theme of, uh, *A Prayer for My Daughter*. And throughout the poem he is talking about Maud Gonne in a rather bitter and ironic way. *Sailing to Byzantium* and *Byzantium* are companion poems. In *Sailing to Byzantium*, disillusioned with Ireland—his disillusionment with Dublin—he wants to leave this country, and he wants to go to Byzantium, which represents eternity—the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople or Istanbul. He wants to go there. He wants to be a golden bird singing on a tree, because in Byzantium Christian goldsmiths made artifacts like that. It says it is better to be an art form than to be nature, than to be a human being. To be a human being means to be traumatized by the complexities of life. He does not want to be natural; he does not want to live in this life, in this world. He wants to be an art form, to be eternal—somewhat like what Keats said that art is greater than life. In *Byzantium*, he is that golden bird. In *Byzantium*, he is looking at all the chaos. In *Byzantium*, he is seeing from the spiritus mundi—human spirits coming on dolphin back—like a dance floor—there are spirits coming and crashing like light on the dance floor, on a disco floor. Human spirits are coming and crashing and dissolving. You know, more and more and more human spirits—that is human history, isn't it? You and I are just specks of light. We come and blend into humanity, and we—we go, and other people come, and other people come, other people come—endless coming and going of human lives. He's looking at this. He is looking at this dolphin-torn, gong-tormented sea. He is looking at the sea of humanity, at the sad perplexity of the people of history, and he is concluding within with a Modernist angst for the future. That is the poem *Byzantium*. There are poems like *Leda and the Swan*, which also presented the anxiety—is the world going towards a better future, or is it just destruction that awaits us? *Leda and the Swan* is one of the annunciation poems—annunciation means announcements—and then there are later poems like *Among School Children*. He wrote this in his late middle age or old age. *Among School Children*, *Circus Animals' Desertion*. Uh, *Among School Children* was written as a senator. He is visiting a school, and he is remembering Maud Gonne and old age and things like that. *Circus Animals' Desertion* is about his own inability to find themes to write poetry. He is remembering, um, you know, his past poems and writings and finding it a little unable to write poetry now. There are many other important poems like *Lapis Lazuli*, *Meru*, and *The Irish Airman Foresees His Death*, and so on. And he has also written a lot of poetic plays and prose works. His poetic plays include *Mosada*, *The Land of Heart's Desire*, *The Shadowy Waters*, *The Countess Cathleen*. Major prose works include *The Celtic Twilight*, *A Packet for Ezra Pound*, *A Vision*—you know that already.
W.B. Yeats is a major Modernist writer, as I told you. He inspired Eliot, Pound, and later Modernists like Auden. And he started as a Romantic poet, but he evolved into a Modernist poet because he began to show the torments of a Modernist psyche. He expressed his anxiety for, uh, the modern world and its future, and he also stood apart from the Modernist canon. He was not a typical Modernist poet because he used traditional verse genres and styles. He rescinded the elitist, experimental style of Eliot and Pound. So that is W.B. Yeats. So that is W.B. Yeats—a very important poet who is prescribed in many, many universities. Make sure you read his original poems. Many of his poems are so beautiful and very poetic. Many are about love. You would love reading them, guys. You should manage your time. Make sure that you have a timetable. Make sure that every day before going to bed you read some original works, because that is very, very important. When you read original works, you will remember a lot. You will be able to understand the style of poets. You will be able to remember quotations. And I am telling you, guys, what you understand from a summary is nothing compared to what you will understand from the experience of a poem or a novel or a play. So you should have a collection of original books in Kindle, if possible; otherwise you can read original works in Project Gutenberg, which is a free digital resource. You don't have to pay for it, or you can have your own library with physical books, whatever it is, or you can take membership in a library, whatever it is. Do original reading and research, because that is invaluable knowledge that you get from original reading. So I hope you enjoyed this video. Please follow all the videos. Look up the playlist every day at six—video period—eh, six video period. You can watch all these videos from the beginning in the correct order and get a thorough understanding of literature, okay? And we have our books, if you're interested, including the encyclopedia. There are 44 books, if you're interested. Check them out in bodhitreepublications.org. You can also just WhatsApp us. You can send us WhatsApp messages or call us: 79387839871. So happy reading, happy studying. All the best to all of you. Until the next video, bye-bye. You.