W.B.Yeats, probably the greatest English poet of the Twentieth Century, had his most enduring work-the poetry of his maturity and old age. His poetry is characterized by its intense lyricism, its use of symbolism, its sensuous beauty, precision and realism. During the last period of his poetic life, a metaphysical strain began to enter his poems. His poem, The Circus Animal's Desertion is about the poet’s inability to write poems any longer. In his old age Yeats retrospect on some of the themes of his earlier poems and plays. He speaks of them as circus animals that have now deserted him, leaving him with his human passions. According to T.R.Henn, Yeats may have derived the idea of the circus from the drawings of his brother of horses, riders and circuses that he made for the Cuala Press Edition of Yeats's works. The poem is written in Ottava Rima.
The poem is presented in the three episodes. In the first episode, the poet laments about his loss of ability in finding the new characters and in finding new themes. He waited weeks for the evolution or formation of a new character and a new theme, but in vain. He therefore feels like a broken man who has to be contented with the common passions of his heart. By "Circus Animals", Yeats means his characters and his themes. As he feels that his poetic faculty is lost, he says that the circus animals have deserted him. The images like stilted boys, burnished chariot, lions and woman make his idea of circus complete. With these images, he remembers his glorious past in his literary career and his ability to deal with various kinds of themes, which he now find banished.
The second episode deals with his recollection of various themes he had in his poetries as well as his plays. The first volume of poems he published is The Wanderings of Oisin in 1889. That is why he tells that Oisin led the way by the nose. Oisin is the hero of an old Irish myth. He was carried off to a fairyland across the ocean by the fairy Niamh. He returned to Ireland after one and a half century and discovered his friends dead and his countrymen converted to Christianity. The story of Oisin has a great coincidence with the real life situations of Yeats. Yeats includes himself in the Irish Freedom Movement due to the charm of Maud Gonne. But later, we can see Maud Gonne deserting Yeats and joining with the Irish Rebels. The Moderate Yeats can't see the spirit in young men for a bloodless revolution, which Yeats liked to put forward. Thus, as Oisin experienced, Yeats went through the three islands of infinite feeling, infinite battle and infinite repose.
Later Yeats feels that dealing the themes in such a way, adopting the characters from the old myth is silly. Also, Maud Gonne influenced him much. For her, and as the part of the freedom movement he created his play The Countess Cathleen. The part of the titular dramatis personae was enacted by Maud Gonne. She could make the character a great success. In the play, the heroine sells her soul to the devil to save the starving peasants. Yeats finds similarity to this character, what had done by Maud Gonne. She sacrificed herself for saving her country- men's freedom. This political fanaticism alienated Maud Gonne from Yeats. Later, as another part of the same story, Yeats identifies himself in his character Cuchulain, an Irish legendary hero, who dies fighting against the waves, while his associates, the fool and the blind man robbed the poor homes in the sea shore. The reference may be to the marriage of Maud Gonne to Major Macbride, who Yeats regarded as
A drunken, vainglorious lout, who
.......had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart.... (Ester 1916)
However, Yeats managed all the negativities. He never becomes an opportunist. He went through his own mode. He involved himself completely in players and painted stage.
He might me thinking about the Abbey Theatre. From 1902 to 1910, he was the President of the Irish National Dramatic Society and the producer cum manager of Abbey Theatre. He wrote plays, produced and directed them, and could hardly find time for any thing else. The play and the theatre are emblems of reality, which was submerged, in his blind enthusiasm for them.
In the third episode of the poem, his mind is presented as a land where a heap of wasted are gathered. He is searching again in the unused part of the old themes to draw up a new part from them. But he feels himself mean to do so. His mind has become a waste-land, with nothing better than a heap of dirty refuse matters like old kettles, old bottles, broken can, old iron, old bones and old rags. In the closing part, the poem has a pessimistic note. The poet makes it sure that he cannot rise in the same status of the previous, the muses that had inspired the whole human kind. The images such as the raving slut and the rag-and-bone shop are really vivid and astonishing. They represent the sharp agents of his mental agony.
The poem is presented in the three episodes. In the first episode, the poet laments about his loss of ability in finding the new characters and in finding new themes. He waited weeks for the evolution or formation of a new character and a new theme, but in vain. He therefore feels like a broken man who has to be contented with the common passions of his heart. By "Circus Animals", Yeats means his characters and his themes. As he feels that his poetic faculty is lost, he says that the circus animals have deserted him. The images like stilted boys, burnished chariot, lions and woman make his idea of circus complete. With these images, he remembers his glorious past in his literary career and his ability to deal with various kinds of themes, which he now find banished.
The second episode deals with his recollection of various themes he had in his poetries as well as his plays. The first volume of poems he published is The Wanderings of Oisin in 1889. That is why he tells that Oisin led the way by the nose. Oisin is the hero of an old Irish myth. He was carried off to a fairyland across the ocean by the fairy Niamh. He returned to Ireland after one and a half century and discovered his friends dead and his countrymen converted to Christianity. The story of Oisin has a great coincidence with the real life situations of Yeats. Yeats includes himself in the Irish Freedom Movement due to the charm of Maud Gonne. But later, we can see Maud Gonne deserting Yeats and joining with the Irish Rebels. The Moderate Yeats can't see the spirit in young men for a bloodless revolution, which Yeats liked to put forward. Thus, as Oisin experienced, Yeats went through the three islands of infinite feeling, infinite battle and infinite repose.
Later Yeats feels that dealing the themes in such a way, adopting the characters from the old myth is silly. Also, Maud Gonne influenced him much. For her, and as the part of the freedom movement he created his play The Countess Cathleen. The part of the titular dramatis personae was enacted by Maud Gonne. She could make the character a great success. In the play, the heroine sells her soul to the devil to save the starving peasants. Yeats finds similarity to this character, what had done by Maud Gonne. She sacrificed herself for saving her country- men's freedom. This political fanaticism alienated Maud Gonne from Yeats. Later, as another part of the same story, Yeats identifies himself in his character Cuchulain, an Irish legendary hero, who dies fighting against the waves, while his associates, the fool and the blind man robbed the poor homes in the sea shore. The reference may be to the marriage of Maud Gonne to Major Macbride, who Yeats regarded as
A drunken, vainglorious lout, who
.......had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart.... (Ester 1916)
However, Yeats managed all the negativities. He never becomes an opportunist. He went through his own mode. He involved himself completely in players and painted stage.
He might me thinking about the Abbey Theatre. From 1902 to 1910, he was the President of the Irish National Dramatic Society and the producer cum manager of Abbey Theatre. He wrote plays, produced and directed them, and could hardly find time for any thing else. The play and the theatre are emblems of reality, which was submerged, in his blind enthusiasm for them.
In the third episode of the poem, his mind is presented as a land where a heap of wasted are gathered. He is searching again in the unused part of the old themes to draw up a new part from them. But he feels himself mean to do so. His mind has become a waste-land, with nothing better than a heap of dirty refuse matters like old kettles, old bottles, broken can, old iron, old bones and old rags. In the closing part, the poem has a pessimistic note. The poet makes it sure that he cannot rise in the same status of the previous, the muses that had inspired the whole human kind. The images such as the raving slut and the rag-and-bone shop are really vivid and astonishing. They represent the sharp agents of his mental agony.
No comments:
Post a Comment