ATS1903 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: W. B. Yeats, Victorian Literature, Internal Rhyme
14 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Genres:
• Romanticism
• Victorian Literature
• Modernism
• Anglo-Irish studies
Was influenced by the historical context of the time (Irish fight for independence, and later become
the Irish senator, and the war at the time.
Fisherman is a symbol rather than a real person
Juxtaposition of ideal audience and real audience (unhappy with his real one)
Creates an ideal 'fisherman' but acknowledges that this fisherman is neglected at the same time
Scolds himself for neglecting the fisherman
Not verses or stanzas, but referred to as paragraph
Green lines make coherence sense
Yeats is enacting the process that he is unhappy about (the deviance and 'neglect')
Drifts away to physical description before returning to continue the opening lines
Doesn't conclude and unfinished grammar in certain lines, making it relaxed hence appropriate
Tone and the mood it creates is important
Both lines use 'grey'; keeps in line with the character of the fisherman, what simply is, is what it will
be
Alliteration of grey place, and assonance in the words (internal rhyme that creates invisible 'music')
Red lines are dissimilar to the green lines
Almost impossible to read without sounding angry
Catalogue of irritations, ideal nature of writing vs the reality
Struggles to find his 'audience'
Ideal vs reality
Writer vs readers (public view)
Hate vs loved (present vs past)
Knave is Shakespearean
'bought to book' - bringing someone to justice but in this poem is more about someone not often
seen
Investigates reality and doesn't like, and then hence returning to his fantasy
Lost in the admiration of the fisherman, views him as a kind of great art
Use of 'maybe', implies that he may not be able to replicate the extent of its beauty
Use of 'cold' and 'passionate' in the same line
In the time, poets were moving onto the newer freer style and abandoning the traditional style of
poetry
Cold is the only way to 'preserve' passion
Coldness in art often refers to 'sculpting', very cold and lifeless and yet able to preserve one's
features for many years
Leads well ito the ext poe…
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Document Summary
Genres: romanticism, victorian literature, modernism, anglo-irish studies. Was influenced by the historical context of the time (irish fight for independence, and later become the irish senator, and the war at the time. Fisherman is a symbol rather than a real person. Juxtaposition of ideal audience and real audience (unhappy with his real one) Creates an ideal "fisherman" but acknowledges that this fisherman is neglected at the same time. Not verses or stanzas, but referred to as paragraph. Yeats is enacting the process that he is unhappy about (the deviance and "neglect") Drifts away to physical description before returning to continue the opening lines. Doesn"t conclude and unfinished grammar in certain lines, making it relaxed hence appropriate. Tone and the mood it creates is important. Both lines use "grey"; keeps in line with the character of the fisherman, what simply is, is what it will be. Alliteration of grey place, and assonance in the words (internal rhyme that creates invisible "music")
