1/15/2024 0 Comments Death poem william butler yeats![]() ![]() ![]() Not until he was eleven years old, when he began attending the Godolphin Grammar School in Hammersmith, England, did Yeats receive any type of formal schooling. From his mother Yeats inherited a love of Ireland, particularly the region surrounding Sligo, and an interest in the folklore of the local peasantry. Yeats’s mother Susan Pollexfen Yeats, the daughter of a successful merchant from Sligo in western Ireland, was descended from a line of intense, eccentric people interested in faeries and astrology. Unfortunately, while good at painting, he was not very successful at exploiting his talent, and the family often suffered from financial hardship. His father had trained as a lawyer, but instead decided to fulfill his life long ambition of becoming a painter. His father, John Butler Yeats, was the son of a once-affluent family whom Oscar Wilde’s father, Sir William Wilde, described as “the cleverest, most spirited people I ever met.” Yeats’s parents had an important influence on the young artist’s life. ![]() Yeats was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865, the eldest of four children. Yeats does not wish the airman to be dreamy or melodramatic, instead he wishes to portray him as a man who has considered all his options and has chosen the one best suited to him. Also consider that the language of the poem contributes to the characterization of the speaker. Vivid images might detract from the solemnity of the subject. Notice that the subject of the poem is solemn. Why would Yeats chose to use so little imagery in this poem? Perhaps it adds to the tone of the poem. An interesting aspect of this poem is its lack of figurative language. The speaker reveals that for him, life and death are balanced, or equal, and in choosing one he has, in a sense, chosen both. The speaker might be considered indifferent to both life and death, but toward the end of the poem the reader realizes how important the theme of balance is. In doing so, he methodically notes that he feels separated from his country and from the reasons most men go to war. These are “In Memory of Major Robert Gregory,” and “Shepherd and Goatherd.” Throughout the poem, the speaker contemplates his fate and attempts to balance his conflict, that is whether to accept life or death. Yeats wrote two other poems about Robert Gregory, which are also included in The Wild Swans at Coole. First published in the collection The Wild Swans at Coole in 1919, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” was written to commemorate the death of 1919 Robert Gregory, the son of Yeats’s patron, Lady Gregory. ![]()
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