William Butler Yeats: Modernism
William Butler Yeats is an Irish poet from the nineteenth century. William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1865. He was educated in both Dublin and London, and he wrote his first verse in 1877 (nobelprize.org). He wrote many poems during his lifetime, and is thought to be the most influential poet of his era. He was very influential in the Modernism era. William Butler Yeats was one of the most famous poets from the nineteenth century. Even though William Butler Yeats wrote both Victorian and Modernistic literature, he still had a large impact on the modernistic style. “After 1910, Yeats's dramatic art took a sharp turn toward a highly poetical, static, and esoteric style” (nobelprize.org). Even though Yeats was considered a patriot, “he deplored the hatred and bigotry of the Nationalist movement” This concern was new in the Modernism era. William was awarded the Nobel Prize for his artistic writing. “His significance today rests on his lyric achievement. His poetry, especially the volumes The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), and Last Poems and Plays (1940), made him one of the outstanding and most influential twentieth-century poets writing in English”.(nobelprize.org) An Irish Foresees his Airmen is a short poem that was written to commemorate Robert Gregory, the son of Yeats Patron, Lady (Poetry for students). This poem was first published in the collection of The Wild Swans at Coole. Yeats wrote two other poems about Robert Gregory, which are also included in The Wild Swans at Coole. The poem an Irish Airmen Foresees his Death is a poem written in the modernistic style, and displays it through its unique style of writing, strange theme, and impartial nature.
Modernism was an emerging style of writing that was introduced in Europe. The term Modernism “refers to the world given to us by the enlightenment and romanticism” (Merriam-Webster) this time period of English literature was the evolution of English literature after the romanticism era. “In literature, a chiefly European movement of the early to mid-twentieth century” (Merriam-Webster). Modernism was a “search for a distinctly contemporary mode of expression” (Merriam-Webster). “Initially Modernism had a radical and utopian spirit stimulated by new ideas, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, political theory, and psychoanalysis” (Merriam-Webster). The energy of Modernism can be seen in many different authors’ writings such as Ezra Pound, and other poets from the imagist movement. (Merriam-Webster) Modernism broke away from the traditional style of writing. (Merriam-Webster) Later Modernism had many outstanding characteristics such as increasing self-awareness, introspection, and openness to the unconscious and to the humanity’s darker fears and instinct” (Merriam-Webster) Therefore Modernism can be seen as a new form of literature, which breaks...
