English (Advanced) Module B Essay
ENGLISH PAPER 2
2010 HSC
Section II
'Yeats's poetry continues to engage readers through its poetic treatment of conflict
and beauty.'
In the light of your critical study, does this statement resonate with your own
interpretation of Yeats's poetry?
In your response, make detailed reference to at least two of the poems set for study.
Yeats's poetry resonates deeply with readers regardless of time and background as he
explores universal themes such as conflict and beauty. This is done in an engaging way
as he portrays his own personal experiences and opinions, while retaining ambiguity
about specific events, thus enabling readers to superimpose their own experiences and
ideas, making the poetry more personally meaningful. This is evident in "The Second
Coming" and "The Wild Swans at Coole", regardless of their different subject matter.
Through Yeats's treatment of themes, his poetry transcends contexts and audiences
and enables readers to engage with his poetry and form their own interpretations.
In "The Second Coming", Yeats demonstrates how conflict eliminates beauty. Written
in a time of great political upheaval as several wars were being waged and Ireland was
moving into its postcolonial stage, Yeats demonstrates a great longing for a sense of
harmony and beauty that has already passed. This can be seen in the prosody and
"things fall apart" and the breakdown of society. The initial centrifugal motion evident
in the repetition of "turning and turning in the widening gyre" eventually degrades
into prose: "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity".
This desire for beauty remains unfulfilled due to the vast amount of conflict taking
place as those that Yeats deems unfit to be running the country are inexplicably at the
head of it. The oxymoron of "mere anarchy" emphasises the pure conflict that is
happening at the time; yet this phrase is also compelling to readers as the ambiguity of
the stanza allows the audience to associate the chaos to any event they feel significant.
Furthermore conflict is alluded to in the imagery of "The falcon cannot hear the
falconer", with Ireland moving further and further away from Britain. Yet the image is
distinctly negative; the loss of control of the falconer results in a wild, dangerous beast,
an image which compliments the image of complete conflict and an ensuing loss of
beauty as harmony is destroyed. In this way, it can be seen that Yeats's poetic
treatment of conflict and the resulting loss of beauty resonates with audiences through
the years.
The conflict brought by modernity is also explored in "The Second Coming". The
shifting of the gyres heralds a new modern age, one that "troubles [Yeats's] sight". A
fear of the uncertainty of change is a universal conflict and thus poetic treatment of
ideas allows Yeats's poetry to be timeless. The "rough beast" of modernity disturbs
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nature, as Yeats recalls the falcon in the first stanza with the imagery of "indignant
desert birds". This fear of the future and the loss of beauty is exacerbated in the
grotesque description of the beast as it "slouches", with "gaze blank and pitiless as the
sun". The simile demonstrates the intensity of this conflict as it charges into the world,
and like "the centre cannot hold", the beast cannot be stopped. In this way, it becomes
evident that Yeats's poetry resonates with all who have had to undergo drastic changes
in their life, as they can relate to the inevitability and confusion that these changes
bring, and the turmoil that is felt during these times. Therefore Yeats's treatment of
conflict, of unwanted change and of the loss of beauty allows his poetry to resonate
through the ages.
Yeats continues to engage readers in "The Wild Swans at Coole" through his portrayal
of his own inner conflict and fears relating to a personal change in his life: his growing
age. Yeats uses the swans as an embodiment of immortality: "their hears have not
grown old", he laments jealously, and in this way tackles a subject matter common to
all members of society. Yeats's own acute awareness of his age is demonstrated in his
usage of the word "autumn", whose connotations include the slow death of leaves
before their extinction during winter. This unwillingness to age and desire for
immortality is highlighted in the phrase "come upon me", the diction of "upon"
suggesting that autumn overpowered him. The conflicting perspectives that time has
wrought is evident in the poem; initially Yeats referred to the swans' flight in a beautiful,
harmonious way, the alliteration of "bell-beat" exuding a soft, dulcet sound. However,
these nineteen autumns have hardened his perspective and he now mentions their
"clamorous wings" and "their great broken rings", creating contrast and a cacophony of
sounds. The conflict between age and beauty is acutely demonstrated, as Yeats enters
his autumnal, final years of his life, his own sense of beauty becomes warped. Although
the swans themselves haven't changed, Yeats's perception of them has. It is this complex
treatment of universal ideas regarding beauty and conflict that engages readers and
allows his poetry to continue to be relevant in contemporary times.
Yeats's personal longing for Maud Gonne is also present in "The Wild Swans at Coole".
This desire for companionship is relatable to all; which allows readers to engage with his
work. The archaic use of language and inversion of "nine and fifty swans" draws
attention to the lone swan and thus Yeats's uncoupled state; and his tone is envious as
he watches the coupled swans. The beauty of the swans as they paddle together "lover
by lover" causes him to mourn his own unpaired state as he has no-one to battle the
"cold companionable streams" The oxymoron clearly shows the beautiful love between
the swans that enables them to endure the harsh conflicts of the mortal world. Hence
The Wild Swans at Coole" touts the ability of beauty to override conflict, if one is in the
support of a beautiful relationship. However as demonstrated in "The Second Coming",
this beauty can be so easily wiped away by conflict as the persona in "The Wild Swans
at Coole" despondently wonders what would happen "when I awake to find that they
have flown away?" The rhetorical question emphasises how beauty does have some
power of staying the hand of destruction, but when all beauty is gone there is nothing
to mask the chaos and the conflict. These provocative and universal ideas allow Yeats's
poetic treatment of conflict and beauty to resonate through various audiences through
the years.
Therefore it can be seen that through Yeats's sensitive poetic treatment of conflict and
beauty, varied audiences are able to have a greater understanding of the human
condition. Yeats's talent for engaging his audience and his focus on universal concerns
allow his work to resonate with the individual, regardless of their context.
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