NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MODERN LANGUAGES

ISLAMABAD
Department of English

ASSIGNMENT – MODERN POETRY

Subject:
Modern Poetry

Assignment:
W.B Yeats as a Modernist Poet

Submitted to:
Ma’am Roshan Ambar

Submitted by:
Group No. 8

Group Members:
1. Hikmat Ullah
2. Kaleen Ullah
3. Muhammad Yasir
Modernism:
Modernism in literature was a literary movement that focuses on contemporary
elements. The modernism literary movement began after World War I and continued into
the middle of the 20th century. World War I was a specifically monumental time for the
modernist literary movement. Modernism developed as a result of the sociological changes of
that period.

Modernism was a widespread change that affected multiple facets of expression.

Modernism can be seen in architecture, artwork, and product design during that period. It
focused on a functional, simple structure and moved away from the romantic style of the
Victorian era, which preceded it.
The rise of capitalism, along with rapid industrialization, helped bring about the
modernist literary movement. This sense of urbanization also propelled the modernist
movement forward, as people grappled with the changing times. Literature prior to this time
period focused on romantic works that centred on nature. The modernist movement began to
move away from these ideals.
World War I was a major influence on the modernist movement, and the sense of
fragmentation and disappointment caused by the war reflected in the literary works at the
time.
The writers of modern period are said to be modernist writers or modern poet.

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Literary Background
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet. He was a leading figure of twentieth-century
literature. He is a pillar of the literary establishment in Ireland. He assisted in founding the
Abbey Theatre, and also served as Senator of the Free Irish State for two terms. Behind the
Irish Literary Revival, he was among the leading force along with Edward Martyn, Lady
Gregory, and many others.

The poetry of Yeats is featured with Irish Legends and occult. His first collection of
poems was published in 1889. The poems in this collection are slow-paced and lyrical and
indebted to Percy Bysshe Shelley, Edmund Spenser, and poets of Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood. His 20th-century poetry was more realistic and physical. In his poetry, he
renounced his transcendental beliefs and remained highly preoccupied with the spiritual and
physical mask. He also talks about the cyclic theories of life in his poetry. He was awarded
the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.

W.B Yeats as a Modernist Poet

William Butler Yeats, one of the modem poets, influences his contemporaries as well
as successors, such as T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and W.B. Auden. Though three common
themes in Yeats' poetry are love, Irish Nationalism and mysticism, but modernism is the
overriding theme in his writings. Yeats started his long literary career as a romantic poet and
gradually evolved into a modernist poet. As a typical modern poet he regrets for post-war
modern world which is now in a disorder and chaotic situation and laments for the past. Yeats
as a modem poet is anti-rationalist in his attitude which is expressed through his passion for
occultisms or mysticism. He is a prominent poet in modern times for his sense of moral
wholeness of humanity and history. Now, a comparative study of Yeats with his
contemporary poets is necessary. Yeats and Eliot are two famous contemporary poets and it
is believed that, Yeats is the seed of modernism where, Eliot is the tree of that seed. Eliot has
a great influence on Yeats. Both have certain things in common. Both are intensely aware of
man in history and of the soul in eternity. Both at times see history as an image of the soul
writ large. Another important similarity of Yeats with other modem poets such as Eliot,
Pound is that they lament for the past and tend to escape from present miserable condition
toward an illusionary Eden. In this regard Yeats differs from Auden, who celebrates all
disorder conditions of his time into his poetry.

Yeats both Traditional and Modern

W. B. Yeats is a unique poet as he is a traditional as well as a modem poet at the same
time. T.S. Eliot once said, “certainly, for the younger poets of England and America, I am
sure that their admiration for Yeats’s poetry has been wholly good. Yeats had great faith in
the aristocracy. In his famous poem No Second Troy, Yeats is critical of the people who stand
up against the aristocracy.

But though Yeats was traditional in his views and very Irish in his outlook, he was a
modem poet all the same. Although he started his poetic career as a reflection for the
romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites, he very soon evolved into a genuine modem poet. Even
before he came in contact with the Imagist school of Pound and his friends. Yeats was
writing poems which had much in common with writings of the Imagist Movement.
However, Yeats’s symbolism is not derived from that movement. Thus, Yeats is a poet who
is both traditional and modem.

The Realism and the Romanticism in Yeats’s Poetry

The early poetry of W.B. Yeats is not realistic. There is a distinct echo of the
Romantics in the poems of his early period. Even in his later poems, despite the realistic
diction and an effort to bring his poetry to the earth, Yeats is yet not free from the spell of the
fairies, ghosts magic and the mysterious world. He is indeed the last romantic, but all the
same his later poetry, especially of the last two phases are very realistic. The poems like The
Winding Stair, The Tower, In Memory of Major Robert Gregory and The Wild Swans at
Coole etc., are very realistic.

The pessimism in Yeats poetry

The pessimistic note is the hallmark of modem poetry. Yeats’s poetry, like that of
Eliot and some of the other modem poets is marked with pessimism and disillusionment.
After his disappointment with Maud Gonne and her rejection of him and his disenchantment
with the Irish National Movement, Yeats started writing bitter and pessimistic poems. But he
tried to dispel this feeling by philosophizing his poems. To A Shade, When Helen Lived, and
The Byzantium poems along with many more of his poems reflect this mood.

Religion and Mysticism

While still at the School of Art in Dublin, Yeats had started taking interest in the
occult and mystic religion. Although the modem age is essentially a scientific age, yet
modern poetry has traces of mysticism and religion in it. T.S. Eliot and George Russell (AE)
are the two of Yeats’s contemporaries who took interest in mysticism and religion. But Yeats
is perhaps the one modem poet who built up a system of thought based on the occult and
mystic religion and whose poetry was the direct outcome of it. The Last Poems of Yeats are
steeped in mysticism.

Yeats as a Symbolist
Yeats was a symbolist as well; that is, he returns repeatedly to certain metaphors
allegories to express his ideas. In his youth he chose religious and even amorous symbols
such as roses and stars or Irish myths. Later, a whole supernatural system was worked out
half believingly by himself. Helen of Troy, for instance, occurs scores of times, representing
ideal loveliness (and often Maud Gonne in particular). A real specialist in Yeats’s poetry
must read the Irish myths and Yeats’s own mystical work A Vision: but for most of us the
symbols in the poems communicate most of their meaning easily, especially if cross-
reference is made to other poems of the same period.

Obscurity and Complexity

Modem poetry has often been described as being very complex and obscure, and it is
not at all surprising that Yeats’s poems have been dubbed as some of the most obscure and
complex poems. Yeats’s conscious adoption of poetic person or ‘Mask’ made his poems
difficult to understand. But what made his poems (and even his plays) very complex and
obscure is the ‘system of symbolism’ which he had built up in A Vision. A Vision was based
on the readings of his wife’s automatic and his own probing into the field of occult and
magic. This of course made it every personal and his poems naturally have a complexity of
obscurity which is rather baffling to his readers.

Conclusion
Yeats may be regarded as a link between the decadent aestheticism of the nineties and
a new realism of the modem age. The romanticism, the mythology and the vague incantatory
music of his earlier work are no longer to be found in his later poems. The poems of his later
years are characterized by a terse, unadorned language and rhythm. Thus, after he had
crossed the age of fifty, Yeats had evolved from a romantic and Pre-Raphaelite poet to a
modern poet who was taken seriously. The Nobel Prize for literature given to Yeats in 1923
confirmed him as a great modem poet.

References:

1. English Literature Info. (2022, May). W.B. Yeats as a Modern Poet. Retrieved from
https://www.englishliterature.info/2022/05/w-b-yeats-as-modern-poet.html
2. Lit Priest. (n.d.). William Butler Yeats. Retrieved from
https://litpriest.com/authors/william-butler-yeats/