The first poem in 'Wild Swans' to really catch my interest was "Lines Written in Dejection." Despite the somewhat melodramatic title, the piece overs a unique perspective on some of Yeats' most common and somewhat contradictory themes. In "Lines," Yeats invokes images one might expect from a member of the group that would come to own such impressive webspace and hung out with this dude:
In any case, Yeats describes a series of magical creatures and with the "dark leopards of the moon" and the"wild witches" there is an element of fear. Yet rather than fear or awe, Yeats inspires a sense of melancholy, longing for this magic which he sees as intrinsically linked with childhood. "I have nothing" he writes, "but the embittered sun." The sun seems to be the combination of knowledge and weariness that come with age, ending the nighttime of youth where magic and wonder are still possible.
However this does not seem to signal a specific change in thematic elements, as if to declare retirement from fantasy imagery. Rather it seems a convergence of Yeats' dwellings on his own mortality and his fixation on the occult and the magical. Yeats' is still able to create these otherworldly visions, but in "Lines Written in Dejection" manages to make this fantasy communicate his own conflicted headspace.
Representing a somewhat different approach is the collections title piece, "The Wild Swans at Coole." This first poem recalls a younger Yeats, ostensibly more influenced by the Romantic and Pre-Raphaelite movements. The author describes, in the first stanza, fifty nine swans "upon the brimming water among the stones" In addition to detailing the majesty of nature around him, the author remarks, "I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,/ And now my heart is sore."
What first came to my mind reading "The Wild Swans at Coole" was the Romantic notion of "the Man of Sensibility." In the poem Yeats' seems to identify with, or, at least aspire to this ideal.
Yeats' later work, "The Tower" finds the author exploring somewhat new territory without having lost his passion for the same themes of mortality and nostalgia. The collection's first poem and one of Yeats' most recognizable is "Sailing to Byzantium." Beginning the piece is the line that, thanks to Cormac McCarthy and the Coen brothers, might be most memorable to us at the moment. 'That is no country for old men,' Yeats begins, and already the reader is faced with the question: to what country is Yeats referring? Is this country Ireland or earth a state of mind? If I understand the concept correctly, I would say that "Sailing to Byzantium" is a strong example of Yeats utilization of 'negative capability.' He creates an ambiguity within the text, that its interpretation might be left to the reader.
In the first stanza, he describes a youthful environment, where "Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long." Yet of course, the reader must be reminded, "Whatever is begotten, born, and dies." As he continues in the second stanza, the author seems to create a differentiation between the body and the spirit. He sets the body up as a simple vessel, "a paltry thing/ a tattered coat upon a stick" and yet, he argues that by exalting and exercising the soul, man might transcend physical weakness.
This transcendence or perhaps even an immortality through legacy, seems to be represented as Byzantium. He pleads with its 'sages' to take away from him the pains of mortality, that his essence might no longer be "fastened to a dying animal." Perhaps I am missing some elements of the piece, but this desire to be separate from the doomed physicality of nature is intriguing to me.
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspect of Yeats that has become more clear to me of the last two weeks is his discomfort. As an individual and an author, it seems that Yeats was rarely, if ever, sure where he fit in, what he was trying to accomplish, or how to do it. By no means do I suggest that he lacked in skill or that the final results of Yeats' work aren't effective. However, his internal struggles between religion and fantasy, nationalism and individualism reveal a conflicted and unsure individual not above rethinking his ideas and constantly experimenting with style. In many ways, Yeats' does seem to have 'hammered his thoughts into unity,' creating a universe where arch angels mingle with centaurs in lush fields and dark bogs. In this manner, their often remains an uncertainty in the interpretation of these poems which in some ways makes them that much greater; for what a hammer lacks in precision, it makes up for in force.
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