Yeats is one of my all-time favorite poets, and his poems discuss a range of different topics from Greek myth to Irish history to fairy lore to his feelings about the world. Which poem did you like the most, and why? Which one didn’t make sense to you? How does the form of the poems work here, and do these count as poems?
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
English 2323-020 
Out of all of the poems, I would have to say that my favorite is The Stolen Child. The Stolen Child is a poem but even when just reading the lines the poem sounds like lyrics. I also liked listening to poem, it was interesting because at first I thought it was a song. The poem that I least understood was Leda and the Swan. The poem was not difficult to understand but I don’t understand what motivated him to write the poem. I am curious to know the context that surrounds the poem like the why. The lines of the poems that he wrote are small and when you read them you get the picture that Yeats is trying to show. I do think that these poems count as poems. If Yeats thought they were poems then they are poems.
LikeLike
Yeats’ poetry was quite enjoyable to me. That said, I found it hard to retain anything from them, it may, in fact, be due to my enjoyment of them. Of the poems we were to read, I least comprehended The Second Coming due to a lack of context for me personally; I am averse to such topics, you see. My favorite of the ones I’ve read, which I believe we were not asked to read, would have to be “To a Poet, who would have me Praise certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine,” which reads thusly: “You say, as I have often given tongue In praise of what another’s said or sung, ‘Twere politic to do the like by these; But was there ever a dog that praised his fleas?” This entry, though not entirely representative of the rest of his works, is just so amazingly passive aggressive, or at least close to passive. On the whole, I think Yeats is my favorite writer we’ve discussed, his writings themselves are enjoyable and, as was mentioned during the discussion, he himself is among the least shitty, action and character-wise, out of everyone we’ve covered. Yeats’ poetry seems to me to be quintessential in nature; that is to say, if I were to imagine the characteristics of a poem, it’d probably look, sound, and generally emulate one of these.
LikeLike
My favorite poem is “The Stolen Child” because it feels very imaginative while at the same time it was easy to understand. The poem that did not make sense to me was “Leda And The Swan.” I did not understand what was happening in this poem until I looked it up and realized the swan was Zeus. The form of the poem uses rhythm, meter, and stanzas to help establish the scenery of the poem along with the mood. These are poems because they use a meter, rhyme, and have a stanzaic structure.
LikeLike
The one that I enjoyed was a poem titled “The Realists” because of the mention of dragons mostly, that is what caught my eye at first. But the title as well is something of interest because I consider myself to be something of a realist, at least now and then. It’s rather interesting that Yeats mentions realism in the title but then talks about mythological creatures just after that. From a brief bit of research, it seems as though this was made during lots of bloodshed in all of Europe which is what brought on the mention of how all of this fantasy rouses a sense to live in the world that had apparently gone away just with those same dragons. I think that these counts as poems purely because someone said that is, just because it was ‘poetry’ to them and something of art.
One that didn’t quite sit well with me and I didn’t really understand too much was “On being asked for a War Poem” which is just Yeats’ opinion on the idea of a War Poem, which I suppose is understandable in itself but my confusion is why making it? I suppose there is the idea that it was the only way he connected with his audience, but at the same time he could have turned it into some sort of fantasy themed poem indirectly saying the same thing.
LikeLike
A poem I liked more from Yeats would be “The Stolen Child” because as I am reading it begins to feel more lyrical, and it’s as if I can actually imagine what is being said. It was very comprehensive. I don’t dislike “Leda and The Swan,” but it was my least favorite because I don’t understand the point behind it. I do admire Greek mythology but I don’t understand Yeats motivation to write this poem. I would say these count as poems because of their structure, and while reading, you can get a sense of imagery in your mind of what is being said.
LikeLike