Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth is a work containing elements of satire, portrayed through Thady. It is to these satiric elements that it owes much of its subtlety. Castle Rackrent is an achievement because of what lies in the subject matter and the narrative methods through which Maria Edgeworth presents her characterisation, language, imagery, tone and satire. These methods are wrapped in the subtlety that comes from total control. The most substantial and remarkable aspect about the novel is the subtlety of its implications. In her dealings with the Edgeworthstown tenants Maria Edgeworth gained first hand knowledge of Irish peasant life and of the peculiarities of Irish peasant character, which form the basis for the success of Castle Rackrent both as a social document and as a work of fiction. At the centre of Maria Edgeworth's work is the 'Big House' itself, which is the symbolic focus of the Protestant Ascendancy's preoccupation with its own decline. 'The big house', the manor houses of the Anglo Irish ascendancy, are often used as a 'metaphor which might allow the author to explore the socially disintegrated world of the protestant ascendancy' Castle Rackrent was published in 1800, 'the first "Big House" novel set on an ascendancy estate, was the first Irish family chronicle, and the first fictional book to make Irish history and politics central to its
Poem Analysis: The Second Coming by W.B.Yeats
Poem Analysis: "The Second Coming" by W.B.Yeats The poem "The Second Coming" written by William Butler Yeats is full of imagery, the uses of exquisite diction, language styles such as personification and hyperbole, as well as a lot of symbolism. The first stanza of this poem described the catastrophes of this world. The word gyre in the first line symbolized history, or the life cycles of men. As a gyre turns bigger and bigger while keeping its original shape, which is round, it means that even though everything, like technology keeps on improving, human nature and the lives that we live never does. History keeps on repeating itself, and human never learn from their mistakes. This gyre also represents a whirlwind, or a storm that shakes the whole world. The falcon and falconer, as referring to a medieval sport, represent a leader and a follower. As the falcon cannot hear the falconer, it means that the followers cannot, or rather, do not want to follow and obey the leader anymore. Imagery is again painted in the fifth line, with the blood-dimmed tide representing an attack or a surge of emotion or action, with blood, meaning with violence. Civilized living, or the ceremony of innocence, by any means, no longer exists. The second stanza, on the other hand, is full of Yeats' prophecies. Referring back to his background, Yeats was not a Christian, but yet he included an
Sir James Connolly.
Sir James Connolly James Connolly was born to irish parents in Edinburgh in 1868. From an early age, he showed an interesting in history, economics and politics and spent much time reading and studying. perhaps becasue of his Irish parents, he developed and interest in the Irish struggle for Home Rule and in the land question. He spent some time in Ireland with the British army and seeing the people's struggle first nad arose his interest even further. He returned to Edinburgh and spent some time working for a Scottish socialist, John Leslie. He taught him public speaking and effective hand writing, two skills which were to become invaluable to Connolly. He joined the Scottish Socialist Federation and the Independent Labour Party and was blacklisted by the employers of Edinburgh and so was foced to move to Dubln. Here he set up the Irish Socialist Republican Party in 1898. Its agenda was a combination of his two interests - nationalism and socialism. He published a newspaper called the Workers Republic in which he expressed his ideas. He soon became noted world wide and was invited to American to lecture on socialist topics. He returned to Belfast in 1911 after almost ten years in America and he became the local organiser of the new trade union, the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, at the request of Jim Larkin. Because of his interest in Nationalism, he worked to
By close examination of "An Irish Airman Forsees his Death" and one other appropriately selected poem, discuss the effectiveness of the poetic methods used by Yeats in his presentation of heroic figures from his own lifetime.
By close examination of "An Irish Airman Forsees his Death" and one other appropriately selected poem, discuss the effectiveness of the poetic methods used by Yeats in his presentation of heroic figures from his own lifetime. Consider * Why Yeats chose to write about these figures * The ways in which the form and structure of the poems contribute to Yeats' presentation of heroic figures * Yeats' language - including imagery - and tone in presenting heroic figures. The poet W.B Yeats lived and was writing during a period of Irish history which is infamous for its rebellious historical characters and figures of public admiration. Yeats expresses his feelings with regard to a personal heroic figure in "An Irish Airman Forsees his Death". Yeats then similarly tackles this subject in poems such as "Easter 1916" where he addresses his attitude more broadly towards the heroic, but public figures involved in the rising of 1916. Yeats reveals his explicit admiration for the men whom he writes about in these poems through his dignified and respectful tone. Through his effective use of poetic methods - imagery, language, form and structure Yeats allows the reader a clear insight into his personal reaction to these heroic figures. "An Irish Airman Forsees his Death" expresses Yeats' glowing admiration for his recently deceased friend Robert Gregory, son of Lady Gregory of Coole
Examine three poems by Auden and Yeats and compare how they present the struggle of man.
Examine three poems by Auden and Yeats and compare how they present the struggle of man. Two poets who are influenced by different individuals yet both come together to produce poems which expose the same image, the struggle of man, are William Butler Yeats and Wystan Hugh Auden. W.B.Yeats, born in Dublin and the son of an Irish painter, hastily revealed, after returning from his childhood life in County Sligo, that he preferred poetry, hence resulting in the rejection of his studies on painting. Yeats became involved in a protest, which was against the cultural power of English rule on Ireland. Apart from Irish mythology and folklore, Maud Gonne was a big influence on Yeats' poetry. Gonne was just as famous as Yeats, but for her beauty and her passion for politics. It is evident that Gonne influences Yeats, as Ireland was "no country for old men", which suggests that Ireland is not a place for old people not fit to fight, which then implicitly depicts the political torment that Ireland was experiencing. On the other hand, W.H.Auden born in York and educated at Christ's Church, Oxford. Thomas Hardy, William Blake, Emily Dickinson and Gerard Manley Hopkins influenced Auden. He had remarkable intelligence in which he would employ the writing styles of other poets such as Emily Dickinson. Yeats' work can be compared with the work of Auden as both often metaphorically represented
Commentary on 'The Wild Swans at Coole' by W.B. Yeats
Ruth Haines Commentary on 'The Wild Swans at Coole' by W.B. Yeats 'The wild Swans at Coole' is a poignant and contemplative Poem written by Yeats typical of his spiritualistic and mysterious style. It was written towards the end of his career/life, reflecting his growing realisation of human immortality in that he is growing older and nearing the end of his life. Throughout the poem Yeats constantly uses the strong image of swans, which to him appear immortal, as a contrast to his own fading life to communicate his awareness of human transience. To compliment the development of this idea of nearing death, Yeats uses a combination of natural imagery, soft language and the form of a regular lyric to create an overall serene and slightly melancholic quality to the poem. At the beginning of poem, particularly in the first stanza the use of natural imagery and language creates a calm and serene tone. The poem follows a regular lyric structure in six stanzas of six lines each, it alternates four beat and three beat lines with the rhyming structure of ABCBDD. This helps to endure a feeling of movement/flow and it reinforces the calm tone created by the other literacy techniques used. The use of words such as 'October', 'Autumn' and 'Twilight' not only create the sense of time at which this poem is set, but all three evoke images of nearing the end of a time period and could be
Poetry Analysis of W. H. Auden's "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
Poetry Analysis of W. H. Auden's "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" Being one of the greatest poet in the modern world and a major figure devoting to the Celtic Twilight, which is a trial and a "popular desire for a revival of Irish traditional culture" (Kelen 32), William Butler Yeats died in January, 1939. Meanwhile, it was only eight months before the outbreak of World War II and the whole Europe was on the edge of the war - there were revolutions within the Continent and people got scared and considered themselves in a war. In Wystan Hugh Auden's "In Memory of W. B. Yeats", Auden makes use of an elegy to state the fact of the death of a great poet and moreover, takes the readers to a wider political context focusing on the extent of effectiveness of poetry in time of tumult. In my view, Auden delicately divides the focus of the poem into two levels, the superficial level (the fact of Yeats' death) and the in-depth level (the effectiveness of the poetry in relation to the political context). The two levels are evenly distributed to the three sections of the poem so that even though different sections carry different meanings, they form cohesion. In the first section, Auden states the fact of Yeats' death on an intense cold day by making use of imagery such as the "frozen brooks" (line 2), the "deserted airports" (line 2) and the "disfigur[ing] of the public statues" (line 3). In
Language and Literature Assignment. Analyse 'The Stolen Child' By W.B Yeats.
Language and Literature Assignment. Analyse 'The Stolen Child' By W.B Yeats Shell Woodward Lecturer Sarah Mills The aim of this essay is to analyse W.B Yeat's poem, 'The Stolen Child', by concentrating on his use of literary devices. By carefully analysing the features of language he has used to create the poem I aim to discover how their effects contribute to the overall meaning. The literary devices I will be concentrating on the most shall be metaphor, metonymy and sound patterning. Metaphor & Metonymy W.B Yeats has used an abundance of figurative language throughout the poem. The most prominent is his use of both metaphor and metonymy in the refrain that is repeated four times at the end of each stanza (changing slightly in the final stanza). The refrain consists of four lines but it is in the fourth line, written in iambic heptameter, that contains the most significant figurative language of the entire poem. "The world's more full of weeping than you can understand" Here 'the world' metonymically stands for the child's reality, his society and life, not the literal meaning of soil, gases and water that make up the earth's core. This use of metonymy is used by Yeats to aid the reader/listener to visualize an abstract idea. The speaker of the poem, an enticing faery, refers to the entire world when pointing out its troubles to the child. The effect of this
The Life And Poetry Of William Buttler Yeats
The Life And Poetry Of William Buttler Yeats The Life And Poetry Of William Buttler Yeats On June 13 1865 William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin Ireland. From the start Yeats had artistic influences, due to the fact that his father Jack Butler Yeats was a noted Irish painter. He had no formal education until he was eleven, at that time he started at the Godolphin Grammar School in Hammer*censored*h England and later he enrolled in Erasmus Smith High School in Dublin. Throughout his schooling he was considered disappointing student, his studies were inconsistent, he was prone to day dreaming, and poor at sports. In 1884 Yeats found his way to the Metropolitan School for the Arts, here he met a poet by the name of George Russell. Yeats and Russell sheared the same dreams, visions, and the enthusiasm for them. Russell and Yeats soon founded the Dublin Hermetic Society for the purpose of conducting magical experiments. They promoted their idea that "whatever great poets had affirmed in there finest moments was the nearest we could come to an authoritative religion and that their mythology and their spirits of wind and water were but literal truth." This sparked Yeats's interest in the study of the occult. After his experience in the hermetic society he joined the Rosicrucians, Madam H.P. Blavavtsky's Theosophical Society, and MacGregors Mather's Order of the Dawn. Yeats
Write about the theme of love in at least two of w.b. Yeats' poems in a suitable way
Pre 20th century poetry Write about the theme of love in at least two of w.b. Yeats' poems in a suitable way Throughout Yeats' early poetry, the theme of love is one of utmost importance, especially in his earlier works. What we must note and remember is that at the time in which Yeats was writing his earlier poetry, he had two main obsessions- Maude Gonne and Irish culture. Maude Gonne was a very well sought- after woman, and she had many admirers, among them was Yeats. Her beauty enthralled Yeats. She had an affair with a Frenchman, and had two children with him, but she married Major John McBride in 1903, much to the dismay of the besotted Yeats. She was his unrequited love for all his life and he proposed to her three times. Each time she turned him down by saying, "No, Willie, the world would not thank me for marrying you". While he was in love with Maude Gonne he shared her Nationalistic aims, although he did not believe in violence to achieve Nationalism, and because of this she exerted a strong influence on his early poetry. Yeats' grandfather was a Protestant, and his father did not believe in God and was a man of science, but, as many other Irish poets were from a Catholic background, and because Yeats yearned for a stable life after his unadjusted childhood, he chose to write about very Irish and also somewhat Catholic idealisms in his poetry. Yeats used
