Poetry as Revolution; an Examination of W. B. Yeats and the Fight for Irish Independence

Molly Cimikoski Prof. Mike Barclay LIT 651 6 December 2015 Poetry as Revolution; An Examination of W. B. Yeats and the Fight for Irish Independence “Out of Ireland have we come. Great hatred, little room, Maimed us at the start. I carry from my mother’s womb A fanatic heart.” William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats was born in 1865, and although he lived between England and Ireland intermittently throughout the entirety of his lifetime, he always felt deeply connected to Ireland’s “beauty… local folklore, and Irish tradition.” This connection to Irish culture is made evident in his writing, and the particular emphasis placed on Irish landscapes is highlighted in his earlier poetry such as, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” one of his most well known poems, which was published in 1890 (Black 1168). Through the presentation of natural beauty, coupled with his powerful political rhetoric, Yeats was able to effectively straddle the divide between producing art as well as philosophy. The American poet, T. S. Eliot, who was a contemporary of Yeats’s, described the paralleling nature of Yeats’s writing as such: Born into a world in which the doctrine of ‘Art of Art’s Sake’ was generally accepted, and living on into one in which art has been asked to be instrumental to social purposes, he [Yeats] held firmly to the right view which is between these, though not in any way a compromise between them, and showed that an artist, by serving his art with entire integrity, is at the same time rendering the greatest service he can to his own nation and to the whole world. Black 1168 This specific balance of linguistic artistry and nationalistic ideology supported Yeats in becoming one of the most renowned contributors “to the cultural, political, and social framework of [Ireland], and to English literature in general” (Black 1168). In the opening years of the twentieth century, Ireland sought independence from the United Kingdom through a series of uprisings that ultimately culminated in the Irish War of Independence, which took place from 1919-1921. During this time of political turbulence, Yeats was simultaneously becoming one of the most prolific poets of the era. His work, undoubtedly influenced by his nationalistic beliefs, powerfully conveys the political motivations of a nation seeking emancipation from their oppressors. Yeats’s literary contribution was truly revolutionary, however, in that he was not only inspired artistically by the political climate, but rather he and his work directly influenced the national dialogue surrounding the liberation of Ireland. Yeats’s poems, “Easter 1916,” “September 1913,” and “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen” are particularly representative of his efforts to inspire social change in Ireland through literature. Following the Easter Rising, which was an uprising staged by the Irish rebel forces against the British army in 1916, during the week of Easter, Yeats wrote the poem, “Easter 1916.” This poem addresses the complexity of Yeats’s political views; although he took pride in the ardor of Nationalist efforts, he was not initially an advocate of those who organized the uprising, however following their executions at the hands of the British army as punishment for their rebellion, his poem is a powerful eulogy for the lives that were lost. In the opening stanza, Yeats addresses the distance he had once placed between himself and those who were ultimately executed for their involvement in the Rising. He writes: 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, (“Easter 1916” 1-8) Through this description, the reader can garner that while Yeats knew the party that he’s speaking of, he did not have a close friendship with them, and perhaps even intentionally distanced himself from the group. Yeats alludes to this secondary, slightly colder notion of their relationship later in the stanza when he indicates that he had told, “Of a mocking tale or a gibe / To please a companion / Around the fire at the club…” The telling of this “mocking tale” was very likely made at the expense of the revolutionaries, but is included strategically in the poem by Yeats to reiterate his own political stance; while he is saddened by the outcome of the Rising, he pointedly reminds the reader that he is not entirely allied with the Republican party (Mlinko). In addition to the fact that this uprising took place quite literally during the week of Easter, there is also powerfully executed symbolism in Yeats’s use of “Easter” in the title in conjunction with the recurring theme of sacrifice throughout the poem. Similarly to the depictions of Jesus’s resurrection in the New Testament, following great suffering and loss due to the casualties of the uprising, Yeats believed that an independent Ireland would rise again. His assertions were correct (“The ‘Terrible Beauty’ of Easter”). This is made most evident in his use of religious language within the fourth and final stanza: “Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart. / O when may it suffice? / That is Heaven’s part… (“Easter 1916” 57-60). The use of the words “sacrifice” and “Heaven,” coupled with the notion Yeats presents that the future was to be determined ultimately by Heaven, or thus God, follows the same narrative trajectory as Jesus’s resurrection. The second stanza of the poem specifically depicts four of the revolutionaries that were sentenced to execution by the British army following the uprising. However, following Yeats’s completion of the poem, “That woman,” referring to Countess Markievicz, subsequently had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment because she was a woman. If the poem in its entirety is a symbolic eulogy, then this stanza functions as an obituary by summarizing thoughtful reminiscences of the convicted. Yeats was especially flattering in his description of Thomas MacDonagh, also a poet: “He might have won fame in the end, / So sensitive his nature seemed, / So daring and sweet his thought.” One interesting component of tension within this stanza is the depiction of Maud Gonne’s former husband, Major John MacBride, for whom Yeats held a considerable amount of disdain. Yeats writes: A drunken, vainglorious lout. He had done most bitter wrong To some who are near my heart, Yet I number him in the song; He, too, has resigned his part In the casual comedy; He, too, has been changed in his turn, Transformed utterly; A terrible beauty is born. (“Easter 1916” 32-40) Despite his personal issues with MacBride, Yeats felt compelled to denote his contribution to the cause, and ultimately receives a significant amount of attention in terms of word count and also due to the proximity of his “obituary” to the poem’s refrain, “A terribly beauty is born.” This phrase appears for a total of three times in the poem and represents the metaphorical shift from “ordinary citizen to revolutionary” that all of the rebels who sacrificed their lives underwent. The martyrdom of these individuals subsequently motivated a great number of Irish citizens to rise up against the British at last, which is why Yeats, who felt significant angst over the circumstance in general, considered the loss of life a “terrible beauty:” Yeats’s reactions to the event were complex: he was deeply moved by the resurgence of a romantic nationalism which he had considered moribund, but on the human level he mourned the waste of life and promise. If the rebels were heroic, they were also tragic. He celebrated them as quasi-mythological martyrs of the fight for freedom, but acknowledged that their ethic of blood sacrifice had contributed to Civil War brutalities, and had permanently inflamed the temper of public life in Ireland. He accused himself of creating the climate in which that ethic had developed. ‘Now I began running through the years from my youth up & measure[d] my responsibility for an event that has been a great grief to me & many mother[s].’ He viewed this responsibility sometimes with pride, sometimes with shame, but always with a deep sense of personal involvement. It gave rise to the most famous question in Irish literary history: “Did that play of mine sent out Certain men the English shot?” Cullingford 85 In addition to questioning his personal contribution and role within the revolutionary efforts, Yeats deliberated over the lasting value in the sacrifice as a whole: In his poem ‘Easter 1916’ Yeats asked whether the sacrifice was necessary: “Was it needless death after all? For England may keep faith For all that is done and said.” His question was not so much a criticism of the patriots, as a comment on the political situation. Cullingford 85 The climate of revolution was undoubtedly fraught with debate and speculation of the most effective way forward. In regards to Yeats’s angst over his involvement, Yeats was not entirely alone in this assignment of responsibility; his former lover, and the subject for many of his love poems, Maud Gonne wrote the following with reference to Yeats and the Easter Rising: Without Yeats there would have been no Literary Revival in Ireland. Without the inspiration of that Revival and the glorification between beauty and heroic virtue, I doubt if there would have been an Easter Week. They were poets and writers who led Irish youth to die, that Ireland might live; and because of them and their writings, when they were crushed by the brute force of England, the people did not yield… Cullingford 88 Gonne’s depiction, however, clearly exonerates Yeats from any potential guilt over the situation since she believed that the cause was entirely worthy, moreover she also credits him enormously for the impact he had on the citizens of Ireland. This perception highlights the manner in which Yeats’s literature itself was truly revolutionary, not only in the breadth of his work, but in the powerful incendiary effect it had on his readers. In addition to eulogizing the four revolutionaries in this poem outwardly, Yeats acknowledges his decision to do so, and that he will continue to do for as long as revolutionaries continue to be killed. In the final stanza he writes: …our part To murmur name upon name, As a mother names her child When sleep at last has come On limbs that had run wild. What is it but nightfall? No, no, not night but death; (“Easter 1916” 61-66). This call to “murmur name upon name” becomes somewhat of a theme in Yeats’s poetry for the rest of the revolution as he continued to memorialize those who would not live to see Ireland a free state. Another highly political poem regarding the fight for Irish independence written by Yeats is, “September 1913.” This poem speaks specifically to Yeats’s political views, which is indicated prominently with the use of the refrain “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone / It’s with O’Leary in the grave.” O’Leary refers to Yeats’s political mentor and friend, John O’Leary. The frequent allusions to O’Leary are highly relevant due to the influence that O’Leary had on Yeats, not only in regards to his political ideologies, although Yeats did specifically identify himself as “a nationalist of the school of John O’Leary,” but also in the sense that it was O’Leary who originally inspired Yeats to incorporate politics into his poetry (Cullingford 1). Prior to O’Leary’s influence, Yeats believed that “art is tribeless, nationless, a blossom gathered in No Man’s Land.” However, O’Leary provided Yeats with the politically driven poetry and essays written by Thomas Davis that had converted O’Leary himself into Nationalism. Upon reading Davis’s work, Yeats, like O’Leary, also underwent a personal revolution: … [Yeats] read Davis and immediately announced: ‘Irish singers, who are genuinely Irish in thought, subject and style, must, whether they will or no, nourish the forces that make for the political liberties of Ireland.’ Thereafter he abandoned subjects drawn from the no man’s land of international poetic tradition in favour of Irish material. Poetry was to benefit no less than politics, for Yeats agreed with O’Leary that ‘there is no fine nationality without literature, and … there is no fine literature without nationality’. … Yeats wrote: I would have Ireland recreate the ancient arts… as they were understood when they moved a whole people and not a few people who have grown up in a leisured class and made this understanding their business… we all hope for arts like these… Cullingford 8-9 This powerfully held belief that a national identity and culture accessible to all would benefit the independence of their nation distinguished Yeats and those in the “school of O’Leary” from others because it coincided with Yeats’s beliefs that “Nationality was not to be a thing of race or creed…” but rather, any citizen who identified culturally as Irish would be considered Irish. This concept that nationality has pliability itself is evident in the evolution of Yeats’s writing style. “September 1913” in particular is unique in that it was one of the first poems in which Yeats was able to eliminate his English Romantic tendencies in his use of diction and meter, and instead he truly embodied a “resolutely Irish” voice. It is fitting therefore that this poem is a political tribute to O’Leary because in Yeats’s successful marriage of Romanticism and “Irishness” he has proven that “… Romantic Ireland is not dead after all: rather, it lives on in the remarkable voice uttering the poem, the voice of O’Leary’s greatest disciple, full of hybridity and passion at once” (Bornstein 28). Similar to the method employed in “Easter, 1916,” Yeats made the choice to include specific names of those who had fallen in the revolution in “September 1913.” In the third stanza he writes: Was it for this the wild geese spread The grey wing upon every tide; For this that all that blood was shed, For this Edward Fitzgerald died, And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone, All that delirium of the brave? Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, It’s with O’Leary in the grave. (“September 1913” 17-24) This repeated choice to intone the names of those who had given their lives for the cause of Irish independence reiterates Yeats’s commitment to utilizing art to inspire revolution; Yeats’s assumptions were correct in asserting that his poetry, and thus those emblemized within it, would outlast the obituaries of daily newspapers. The poem, “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen” is another classic example of Yeats’s political commentary that exemplifies so much of his later work, which was “more direct in its analysis of the events and attitudes of the period” (Black 1169). Where there is an undercurrent of hopefulness in “Easter, 1916,” “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen,” much like “September 1913” is filled with disillusion. Yeats originally intended for it to be titled, “Thoughts Upon the Present State of the World,” however he renamed this “ambitious, ambivalent, magnificent, complicated and bitter poem” after several revisions, which lasted over the course of many years (Burt). Set in the midst of the throes of the Irish War of Independence, this poem places a particular emphasis on failure and loss, which Yeats depicts through verses of great nostalgia and violence. For example, the opening stanza begins with the image of several ancient Greek artifacts having been destroyed: Many ingenious lovely things are gone That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude, Protected from the circle of the moon That pitches common things about. There stood Amid the ornamental bronze and stone And ancient image of olive wood— And gone are Phidias’ famous ivories And all the golden grasshoppers and bees. (“Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen” 1-8) Yeats immediately follows this stanza with a shift in narrative tone to include the collective pronoun “We,” referring to Irish citizens, that highlights his disappointment in the current state of political turmoil: We too had many pretty toys when young; A law indifferent to blame or praise, To bribe or threat; habits that made old wrong Melt down, as it were wax in the sun’s rays; Public opinion ripening for so long We thought it would outlive all future days O what fine thought we had because we thought That the worst rogues and rascals had died out. (“Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen” 9-16) In Yeats’s determination to effect lasting political change through his writing, he was faced with the challenge of inspiring his audiences to endure the difficulties of revolution by reiterating the overwhelming value of their cause. Stephen Burt, literary critic, poet, and a professor at Harvard University, wrote an essay specifically to this point that states, “…it is with his poems on public events, which imply—none more so than “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen”—that political art can reach its zenith only when political action, as such, has failed.” Therefore, as the political situation in Dublin became increasingly dire, Yeats’s poetic interpretations of events became even more important. “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen,” while fitting categorically with so many of Yeats’s other political works, is unique in its use of violence and harrowing language. The most graphic details can be found in the fourth stanza, in which Yeats depicts the killing of a mother: …a drunken soldiery Can leave the mother, murdered at her door, To crawl in her own blood, and go scot-free; The night can sweat with terror as before We pieced our thoughts into philosophy, And planned to bring the world under a rule, Who are but weasels fighting in a hole. (“Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen” 26-32) The mother referred to in “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen” was Eileen Quinn, a mother of three who was shot dead while nursing her child by an officer from the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force (often referred to colloquially as The Black and Tans) who were infamous for their violence against civilians (Vendler 64). Although Yeats does not specifically identify Quinn by name, this is another instance where he uses his poetry to eulogize someone whose life was taken in the fight for independence. When discussing the role of violence within this poem specifically, Burt writes: “…violence demonstrates—shockingly, for those accustomed to relative peace—the fragility of all social rules. The country to which Yeats did not yet want to return in 1921 [Yeats was residing in England] was ‘a world without rules but where it still feels as if rules are being broken—if not the rules we used to have, then the ones we believe we ought to have’” (Burt).  The renowned of W. B. Yeats’s work is undeniable, however unlike so many of literature’s most prolific writers, his fame was not achieved far after his demise, but rather as the history he attempted to construct unfolded before him. Elizabeth Cullingford, author of Yeats, Ireland and Fascism wrote the following in regards to Yeats’s place within his writing and history: Speaking of Irish writers he [Yeats] claimed that: ‘We are what we are because almost without exception we have had some part in public life in a country where public life is simple and exciting.’ … One of the leading characteristics of his political verse is that he speaks not as an observer but as a deeply implicated participant…. Between his young manhood in the nineties and his death on the eve of the Second World War, he saw the destruction of the Victorian dream of peace and progress by the Great War, the decay of liberalism, and the rise of communism and fascism. His reaction to these events was heavily coloured by his experience of Irish politics… Cullingford vii-viii What continues to distinguish Yeats from so many of his literary comrades is the precise nature in which he was, as Cullingford puts it, “deeply implicated” in the circumstances of the fight for Irish independence. Yeats was not simply a commentator of politics, or even just an incredibly talented writer, but rather he was a significant conductor of social change and revolution whose legacy includes the provocation of his fellow citizens to make radical leaps towards national liberty. Works Cited Black, Joseph, et al., eds. William Butler Yeats. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Volume B, 2nd ed. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press, 2014. 1168-1170. Print. Bornstein, George. "Yeats and Romanticism." The Cambridge Companion to W.B. Yeats. Ed. Marjorie Elizabeth Howes and John Kelly. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2006. 19-35. Print. Burt, Stephen. "The Weasel’s Tooth: On W.B. Yeats." The Nation. 26 Jan. 2011. Web. 10 Nov. 2015. Cullingford, Elizabeth. Yeats, Ireland and Fascism. New York University Press, 1981. Mlinko, Angie. "William Butler Yeats: Easter, 1916." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2015. Web. 20 Nov. 2015. "The 'Terrible Beauty' of Easter, 1916." The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 Mar. 1991. Web. 01 Dec. 2015. Vendler, Helen. Our secret discipline: Yeats and lyric form. Harvard University Press, 2007. 64. Web. Yeats, William Butler. Easter, 1916. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Volume B, 2nd ed. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press, 2014. 1171-1173. Print. Yeats, William Butler. Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Volume B, 2nd ed. Peterborough, Ont: Broadview Press, 2014. 1175-1177. Print. Yeats, William Butler. "September 1913." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. 9 Cimikoski