The theme of violence in Yeats\'s Poetry
Author Affiliations
- 1Department of English, Nalini & Arvind Arts College, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand, Gujarat, India
Res. J. Language and Literature Humanities, Volume 4, Issue (6), Pages 1-3, September,19 (2017)
Abstract
The modern age in literature was grounded in achievements that are amazing in their potential for both emancipation and destruction. The literature of the 20th century focuses on human freedom. William Butler Yeats, the Nobel laureate has regret for post-war modern world which is now in a disorder. He is a prominent poet in modern time for his sense of moral wholeness of humanity and history. Yeats uses distinct, concrete imagery to symbolize complex ideas about the modern world. The concept of Violence is understood as, \'Great destructive force or energy\'. We find the theme of violence in modern poets like, W. B. Yeats, Edward Thomas, Edmund Blundell, etc... They were influenced by World Wars and some other literary movements to write such poems with the theme of Violence. The focus of this paper is to analyse Violence in Yeats\'s Poetry with a special reference to two poems:\"Leda and the Swan\" and \"The Second Coming\". i. Leda and the Swan: In this poem, the bird is fearsome and destructive, and it possesses a divine power that violates Leda. ii. The Second Coming: \'THE GREAT BEAST\' - a horrific, violent animal, it represents evil and darkness. In “The Second Coming,” the great beast emerges from the Spiritus Mundi. Yeats makes an abstract fear become tangible and real.
References
- Nayar Pramod (2009)., A Short History of English Literature., Delhi: Foundation Books, India.
- Childas Peter (2000)., Modernism, London and New York., Routledge.
- Paul Fussell (1975)., The Great War and Modern Memory., New York, Oxford University Press.
- Gillie Christopher (1975)., Movements in English Literature, 1900-1940., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Hoffman Frederick John (1957)., The Literary Mind, Baton Rouge., The LouIsTana State University Press.
- Long William (2000)., English Literature., A. I.T. B. S. Publishers. Delhi. India.
- Bhargava Ashok (1979)., The Poetry of W.B.Yeats : Myth as Metaphor., Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann Publishers, India.
- Carter Ronald and McRae John (2016)., The Routledge History of Literature in English: Britain and Ireland., London and New York: Routledge.
- Rosenthal M.L. (1962) ., Selected Poems of William Butler Yeats., Macmilan, New York.
- MacNeice Louis (1941)., The Poetry of W.B. Yeats., Oxford University Press, London.
