William Butler Yeats and Irish nationalism
In a nutshell
During the 20th century, Britain went through different events that gave in a result the origin of the Republic of Ireland. In addition, literary advances were accomplished in favor of the Irish culture, one of the authors that gave rise to Irish literature was William Butler Yeats.
The Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence
The first two decades of the 20th century represented a series of issues in British politics, these events were called the 'Irish Question'.
From 1913 to 1920 | From 1921 to 1949 |
- The Irish Volunteers were founded (1913) and the rebellion on Eastern Monday took place to take advantage of British weakness, the post office and the main points in Dublin were seized (1916). The political party Sinn Féin won with Éamon de Valera as a leader (1918), an Irish Parliament was established, the War of Independence began (1919) and Ireland was partitioned and Northern Ireland was established (1920).
| - The Anglo-Irish Treaty established the Irish Free State (1921). After, the Irish Civil War broke out regarding the terms of the treaty (1922). A year later, the free state forces were victorious in the Irish Civil War and in 1949, the free state became the Republic of Ireland.
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The Author's Life
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin in 1865 in the heart of a middle-class family. Like his parents, Yeats carried with the dilemma of the Anglo-Irish Protestant minority: he felt as much Irish as British. Yeats's was attracted to art, painting, mystical doctrines, and magic, which is reflected in his works' imagery. Yeats' career was solid, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923 which made his influence even more popular. Unfortunately, William Butler Yeats died in France in 1939.
Main Topics
William Butler Yeats wrote about themes such as death, loneliness, the beauty and eternity of art, the relationship between the poet and the Irish people, Irish traditions, and the idea of the heroic individual. However, Yeats' strongest topic was nationalism.
NATIONALISM
As a poet, Yeats was very much aware of the political and social situation of his country, he was always trying to depict a view of Ireland as an independent cultural identity with its own native myths, customs, and beliefs that preceded William of Orange and St Patrick. However, as time passed by, he lost motivation for nationalism and distanced himself from the Celticist ideas.
THE CELTIC TWILIGHT
In 1889, Yeats met Maud Gonne, the woman whom he fell in love with, and introduced him to the politics of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, though she would later leave him to marry another person. In the 1890s, Yeats met Lady Gregory, she supported him in his writing and his project of the Abbey Theatre (Yeats wanted a literary theater). Since Yeats thought the artist's role was to produce content based on Ireland's past, he wrote a series of essays called The Celtic Twilight (1893), even if later he would disappoint by the nationalist ideas.
Michael Robartes and the Dancer
Michael Robartes and the Dancer is a book of poems written by William Butler Yeats. One of the most important poems in the book is Easter 1916, which was inspired by the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916.
The following text is an extract of Easter 1916:
| I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces From counter or desk among grey Eighteenth-century houses. I have passed with a nod of the head Or polite meaningless words, Or have lingered awhile and said Polite meaningless words, And thought before I had done Of a mocking tale or a gibe To please a companion Around the fire at the club, Being certain that they and I But lived where motley is worn: All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born. | (Butler Yeats W.) |
In this stanza, the daily life of Dublin is described as where many revolutionaries from the Easter Uprising made a living. It portrays the concern with the materialist city life routine of the common social settings. The last lines of this stanza, depict the duality and opposite feelings of the speaker in which beauty and horror can coexist at the same time.
