Eng426 20th century english literature

UNIT 3:The Poetry of W.B. Yeats

Content
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives

0. 
   Main Content
   
1. 
   W.B. Yeats
   
2. 
   “The Second Coming”
   
3. 
   Themes and Techniques in “The Second Coming”
   

4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/ Further Reading

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Twentieth Century poetry was also greatly influenced by the World Wars because it mirrors the disorientation and the terrible experiences of the war. The poems express the anger, violence, grief, psychological disorders due to shell shock, and the futility of man’s life. These reactions towards the reality of the war are central to the modernist poetry and they could be seen in some of Yeats’ works especially “The Second Coming”. Other poems by W.B. Yeats include “Easter” “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” and “Sailing to Byzantium”.

0. OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit you should be able to:

• 
  discuss themes and techniques in Yeats’ “The Second Coming” and “Sailing to Byzantium”
  
• 
  make a connection between the works of W. B. Yeats and other modernist writers.
  

0. MAINCONTENT

1. 
   W.B. Yeats
   

William Butler Yeats was born in 1865 in Dublin, Ireland to John Butler Yeats an Irish Painter. He went to school in London and Dublin to study painting. He started reading William Shakespeare, John Donne, William Blake and a host of other writers at a young age. He was a poet and a writer who was seen as one of the greatest poets in the 20th century. He devoted his time to writing poetry and drama even as he was interested in the unity and independence of the Irish nation. He married George Hyde- Lees after he had proposed and been rejected before by other women. His works were enriched with the use of myths and symbols which were regarded as complex. He founded the Abbey Theatre which was first known as Irish Theatre with Lady Gregory. His volume of poetry includes, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Tower, Michael Robartes and the Dancers and
so on. Hewon the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. He died in 1939 and W.H Auden wrote an elegy for him “In Memory of W.B Yeats”.

0.