Was an Irish poet dramatist write and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature . He was driving force behind the Irish literary revival and became a pillar of Irish literary establishment who helped to found the . Abbey theatre and his later years served two teams as a senator of the Irish free State.
The second coming
W. B . Yeats the second coming was written at a momentous time in 20th century Europe an ear of uncertainty and upheaval in the wake of the first' world war and in the teeth of Ireland independence struggle Yeats captured the moment brilliantly in a poem that with its prophetic Tone and foreboding language has stood the text of time . The poem was written in January 1919 in the minds of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic the only modern precedent for what we are going through in this first half of 2020 the story began early in November 1918 when John Quinn cable from new York with word that Yeats 79 years old father John butler Yeats who had lived there since 1907had come down with a serious bout of the flu which quickly developed into pneumonia .
To add to the drama Maud Gonne made a dramatic appearance in flu ridden Dublin. Following an intercession by the redoubtable John Quinn Gonne had been released on health. Ignoring this restrictions she travelled from England at the end of November disgusted as a Red cross nurse.
2) Reread the poem war poem by replacing the word war with pandemic. Dose it make any sense?
On being asked for a war poem
On being asked for a poem war poem is a poem by William Butler's Yeats written on February 6 1915 in response to a request by Henry James that Yeats compose a political poem about World war 1 Yeats changed the poems title from To a friend who has asked me to sing his manifeso to the neutral nation to a reason for keeping silent before sending it in a letter to James
Introduction
There is something of a contradiction to this poem in a war poetry collection it is a poem that refuses to speak about war. The poem says that it is not the place of a poet to write about politics but that the poet instead should limit his interference in the World to pleasing companion .
On being asked for a war poem
This poem war written after Yeats was asked to write a war poem. It is a meditation on whether poets can write war Poetry . It also consider an old question what is the role of the poet in society and what is he function of poetry.
The opening stalemate is forthright and conversation about times like these time of war the enjambment or running over the end of line mimics everyday speech. We have no gift to set a statement right. A statesman is a political leader . Here it is asserted that poets have no gift or ability to tell statesman how they should make decisions. This seems to say that poetry has no place in intervening in politics and the poet no role in making big Statament about wars and what causes them.
