EN3077 Exam Notes - Summary The Irish Literary Revival & Irish Modernism PDF

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yeats and kavanagh and synge...

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Exam Poetry Focus: (Art McCooey, The Great Hunger + Salley Gardens, The Lake Isle Innisfree) - Poets’ response to the political climate of the period - The attempt to create a national literature - Parochialism - The realism and, or modernism of the poetry at this date - Gender - Religion - Poetic form Drama Focus: 1) Sacrifice 2) Gender (I think this one is comparative), 3) Remaking of Ideologies, Challenging the Ideologies of the Abbey Theatre – Celtic Revival, Nationalism 4) *Language*, Synge creates from composites of language, while O Casey grows up in the dialect that he uses. Synge transforms landscapes, Christy and Pegeen, while Juno adopts a more vivid language. Poetry W.B. Yeats (1865 – 1939) was actively involved in cultural and political activites in Ireland, such as the setting up of National Literary society, and supporting the Home Rule Bill. He is both a 1) Major literary figure in Britain and Ireland and also played an 2) Important role in the tumultuous political landscape of Ireland. Unlike Douglas Hyde (The Necessity for DeAnglicising Ireland, 1892), who believed in the importance of de-anglicising Ireland (through language), Yeats thinks that this is impossible because English stands as an integral form of expression for the Irish. He believes in “re-telling in English, which shall have an indefinable Irish quality of rhythm and style” Instead, Yeats adopts visual imagery, symbols, forms, landscape, subject matter, to formulate the sense of Irishness. Yeat’s poems hardly referred directly to politics unlike most 19th C poets, but rather, expressed the individuality of Ireland and nationalistic beliefs. “one of the last Romantics”… “modernised, against the grain” (D.E.S Maxwell, Yeats and Modernism)

Modernism -

Sampling and citation of the past – Eliot: every generation must have its own translator. To translate history and mythology into digestible knowledge, that we can borrow to frame the chaos of the modern where “things fall apart”, and react to a loss of tradition, and the cultural crisis.

“unity of life” Reacting to materialism and industry “magic was a rebuff to materialism and aggressive technology” (D.E.S Maxwell, Yeats and Modernism) -

Breaking from English tradition

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Shift from exteriority to interiority

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“make it new”

Early Yeats – Romantic Ireland – a way to make sense of Ireland’s status Adopted antiquarian poetry, which contributes to a well-established process of recovery of the Irish past. It restages legendary past in the tumultuous present. The Celtic element asserts the cultural validity of Ireland and its ancient materials. It is a form of exotic “defamiliarisation” of the English language lyric, building on and surpassing Thomas Moore’s Irish melodies (1808) in the early 1800s. Using the “most moving legends” to turn them into “drams, poems.. full of living soul” to “deliver a new great utterance” – WB yeats, Hopes and Fears for Irish Literature

Folklore and Celtic Elements Yeats drew on folklore and older myths in precolonial Ireland. This revival was a recovery of the Gaelic tradition – Gaelic poetry and music. Folklore was a form of scripture for the Irish poet, e.g. Down by the Salley Garden/ An Old Song Resung (1889) This poem is “an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballisodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself.” (Note on Wanderings of Oisin and other Poems) The act of reconstructing an old song that was imperfectly remembered by an old woman reflects 1) Yeats’ re-imagination of the old Ireland/ Old song which belonged to the Irish people, filling in the gaps, and reclaiming the peace and tranquillity of precolonial times into existence again through arts and literature. It is a nostalgia for old Ireland where divisions did not exist, and he is re-dignifying this simple, uninterrupted landscape. 2) The act of salvaging fragments of an old Irish song and re-singing it also mirrors his desire to salvage divided Ireland and restore it into a unified whole again, which aligns with his nationalistic beliefs. He is symbolically restoring Ireland back into whole through poetry. 3) By drawing on a song passed down in oral form in a village, he is also drawing on the rural quality of Ireland, which exists in contrast to industrialised England. (Politically, it emphasises both state’s differences and a desire to return to that idyllic state that is untainted by British rule) 4) Drawing from the common person, this piece of poetry reroots him in native soil and celebrates folk and national history of Ireland “salley” is an Irish word for willow tree. “Down by the salley gardens… She passed the salley gardens/ with little snow-white feet” “But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears” – an element of nostalgia, with the constant use of past tense, in retrospective first person voice This restaging of Irish identity is thus done by reasserting Celtic material. It de-familiarises English cultures, symbols and landscapes, which consequently alienates it. In To Ireland in the Coming Times (early 1890s), the rose symbol harks back to the Irish tradition, it is reminiscent of the self-reliant, sturdy Irish women of the past and present. Ireland is thus symbolised by the wild Irish Rose which honours the independence of Irish women, indirectly asserting and restoring the independence of Ireland in Anglophonic literature. Also, the rose does not merely symbolise the rose of the Irish, but also stands as an occult symbol – occult: the belief in a deeper truth that exists beneath the surface.

The Lake Isle Innisfree (1890) “I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree…Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee/ And live alone in the bee-loud glade”. This is reminiscent of tones of hermit poetry such as “Manchan’s wish, or “The Hermit’s Song”, suggesting that Yeats is creating a continuity with the first poetries of Irish literature written in established metrical forms, composed by scribes, or hermits on green martyrdom, before the 12th Century. He is embodying the persona of the Irish who is uninfluenced by colonialism, existing in exile, in a state of purity, of pursuing nature and God. Yeats reuses the image of the “honeybee”, found in the Hermit’s song (9th Century) to have a “sweet providing”, restaging it in modern poetry to recall the richness of the Irish landscape, and declares that “I shall have some peace there”, in a place of self-exile in Ireland. Yet, the phrase “I will arise and go now” indicates that the persona has not reached, and he is prompted to for “always night and day/ I hear lake water lapping with low sounds… I hear it in the deep heart’s core”. Yeats is haunted by the shadow of the hermit world, of an Old Ireland that was not distracted by political turmoil, a nation that was pursuing the heart’s desire. The poem is a medium for meditation, for he looks inward to discover his longing for home, which ironically, is in a place of exile – a life sought by the early Irish – in a “small cabin” in the Lake Isle of “Innisfree”. Innisfree is part of the Irish landscape, where the persona seeks peace, and where he exiles himself from society. He is yearning for a distant mythic place. “when walking through Fleet Street very homesick I heard a tinkle of water and saw a fountain in a shop window…and I began to remember lake water… I had begun to loosen … as an escape from rhetoric, and from that emotion of the crowd that rhetoric brings” – Four Years, 1921 // Wordsworth’s spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings “Nature served to offset politics, history, personal experience” – Nature VS History in WB Yeats, John Felstiner “I still had the ambition … of living in imitation of Thoreau on Innisfree” –Nature VS History in WB Yeats, John Felstiner – Points to Yeat’s desire of living like Thoreau to seek self-reliance and spiritual awakening, to realise the quintessential components of life. “The final stanza then adds urgency by contrasting the images of the rural retreat with the bustle of urban life” – Stuart Hunter, The Symbolic Significance of Innisfree – expanding on this reading, we may identity the urban life as that recorded on Fleet street London, that Yeats contrasts against the simple life that is found in Ireland – comparing utopia and chaos of

Britain “presence of the legendary past of the Celtic world” “The wisdom and peace that are the goal of the quest of identity within a tradition” – Stuart Hunter, The Symbolic Significance of Innisfree Quotes “I hear lake water lapping… While I stand on the road way, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core” Yeat’s Occult Beliefs His occult beliefs was inextricably intertwined with his Celticism. His occult interests was linked to his interests in the Celts. In The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), Yeats represented Irish material (through content), and externally through the cover page, lettering, blinding, paper type of the book. (its paratext – designed by Althea Gyles the Occultist) The lettering is in Tolkein style, which parallels Celticism. The front and back of the books draws upon Celtic designs: wind as a symbol of inspiration, and romantic natural images of rural Ireland, chimes and harps which played an important part in the musical and political history of Ireland – many harpers lost their statuses with the decline of Celtic social order after Henry VIII declared himself the Kind of Ireland. It became also the national symbol of Ireland after Henry’s new realm. The cover contains 4 cosmogonic elements – the key constituents of the universe: earth, air, water, fire. In its binding, a rose or wand is printed, resembling a magical stick. This is an example of how celticism and the occult is combined. He was part of the secret society Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Hosting of the Sidhe (1893) introduces mythological characters into mainstream literature as a way to restage celtic materials at fin desicle, which further defamiliarises the English in the late 19th century. Irish places such as “knocknarea” are featured. Introduces alien personages not part of the English tradition, such as Caoilte and Niamh. “irish mode” – Thomas Macdonagh. Yeats is narrowing the scope of Irish literature, recreating a literary tradition that is only meant for the Irish reader. The Song of Wandering Aengus (1897) – supernatural being from the celtic pantheon. Stanza gap symbolises the transition of Aengus from youth to age, containing decades. “Apple blossom” alludes to Maud Gonne in Yeat’s memoir, and also stands as the symbol of knowledge that Yeats is pursuing fervently.

The Celtic Twillight: In the Seven Wood (1903) – The volta takes place in the 9th line instead of the 7th. It is also written in conversational English, in contrast to Aengus which is poetically structured by alternate rhyme scheme. He refers to modernity and addresses events directly: 1) Hill of Tara uprooted and English men, as well as the 2) Coronation of Edward the Seventh. He expresses contempt for the English and Irish unionists who celebrated Edward as well. Yeats becomes increasingly bitter about Ireland, who awaits “his hour to shoot”. This delay of change causes a growing unease in Yeats’ heart. Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation (1910) – Yeats becomes increasingly disenchanted by the beliefs of middle class catholic in Ireland. He identifies with the house, coole park, and its fate of becoming a fossil. He had a growing affair with protestant ascendancy, and began to view the poet as a kind of aristocrat, like Nietzche’s ubermensch. September 1913 – Associates the shrivelled bones of beings and Ireland’s romantic being. “You” refers directly to readers. Yeats’ tone of disappointment is apparent when he talks about modern Ireland, and its moving away from what O’ Leary embodied. Easter 1916 – written in the aftermath of the Rising. Gonne believes that the “tragic dignity” has to be restored, VS Yeats’ ambivalent response to the rising. First Stanza: Decribes situation of the pre-rising, during which Ireland was regarded a “mocking tale/ Motley”, a joke. “terrible beauty” that was born is an oxymoron or paradox which suggests the birth of something serious, and also echoes Gonne’s emotions. The poem is an elegy for the leaders of the rising, and the conventions of an elegy is its movement from feelings of despair to feelings of comfort and assurance. Elegies are also usually dedicate to one person, but Yeat’s elegy is a dedicate to a collective unit. Interestingly one of the subjects are not dead, but appears in this elegy. The dead are conventionally praised, as in Milton’s poems, but Yeats, here, defies elegy conventions by naming and criticising characters. They are portrayed as fanatic martyrs, whose deaths proved fruitless to the cause of the Revolution. Second Stanza: Pastoral imagery and metaphors are employed to join in the mourning of loss, and to articulate Yeat’s beliefs. “living stream” symbolises natural course of nature, while “stone” symbolises the leaders of the rising. Although Yeats admires their courage, he believes their hearts have turn into stone by their ideological insistence. Third Stanza: “Dream” refers to the illusory quality of their ideologies. “mother names her child” points to the infantile, and thus questionable motives of the rising leaders.

The Second Coming (1919) – alludes to the beast that appears in New Testament’s Matthew and Revelation and to the coming of Christ. It could also be based upon Yeat’s belief that history movies in cycles of 2000 years. [Gyre imagery] The maximum expansion of the civilisation leads to a collapse at its peak, kick starting an antithetical age. Poem is viewed as a cistern which contains and structures modernity, allows the consolidation of its chaos: WWI, Irish war of independence. Byzantium (1930) – Documents a spiritual journey from life to death, freedom and eternity. Drew inspiration from mosaics in Italy. Byzantium symbolises a spiritual city of the 6 AD, during which there was a unity of cultures. Byzantium is also associated with a world of art, and reflects Yeats’ desire to be turned into a work of art, or artefact. The eternity of an artwork is similar to the afterlife, which leaves behind the complexities of life. He sees dependence between separate realms of existence such as art and nature, as well as soul and body, and thus also, their unity. Yeats has always been inspired by the chaos and disunity in the world, such as in Ireland, a state that has been fragmented by authoritative division. Dolphine swimming on their backs into eternal artifice and eternity. Journey to land represents their journey from life to death. The Dolphin turn to flesh, mire and veins while the human riding the dolphin pass through in spirit. Dolphin torn suggests that the sea is life that is torn by desires of the human body, and the spiritual longings of the soul, causing one to be at war with himself, while the arrival at shore symbolises a point where the human body is finally purged. The sea of life is dolphin torn because we are tortured by our physical needs, “fury and mire of human veins”, and also our spirituality, the “gong”, as a metonym for religion. Yeats uses a series of symbols, such as the dome which symbolises eternity and after life. At the end of the poem, the persona overcomes the sense of crisis, resonating with Romantic conventions. [interiority, art, modernity] “Byzantium was the centre of European civilisation and the source of its spiritual philosophy, so I symbolised the search for the spiritual life by a journey to that city” “a golden bough suggests the magical branch that enables Aeneas to visit the underworld” in book 6 of Virgil, Aeneid In his 1930 diary, yeats described “Byzantium as it is in the system towards the end of the first Christian millennium” “flames … the soul is purified … dolphins offering their backs to the wailing dead that they might carry them to paradise”

The Tower I (1928) – Stanza one: Reveals a decline in physical potency, but also leaves imagination unscathed. Yeats is interested in the sensual, rather than abstract qualities, but he embraces the latter here. Yeats chooses “plato for a friend”, even though both believe in Byzantine. The republic is deemed to be dangerous by Plato, as he believes that everything is the copy of an ideal, and poetry is thus twice removed from reality. However, Yeats expounds on the power of imagination, proving in II that poetry is not just a copy of reality, but rather, even stronger than reality itself. Han Rahan is a figure of lunacy that Yeats is to become. This poem suggests that the power of Yeat’s imagination and his poetry is dependent on his losing of the real image, the real Mary. The “swan” references folk stories of swans and Yeat’s imagination of them. Plato is mocked, for the power of imagination creates everything. For example, his physical poverty does not affect the richness of his poetry, which is created by imagination. Like Homer, whose blindness created new possibilities. He compares himself with a mother bird, fertile, and capable of creating new life, asserting the power of imagination in true romantic fashion. Late Yeats Under Bel Bulben (1938) – we are persuaded to subscribe to Yeat’s occult beliefs such as reincarnation and the transmigration from body to body. He believes that each individual is a composite of the soul and the celtic body. This poem is a self-elegy, which looks back to the Western cultural tradition from 1930. While doing so, Yeats is urging us to bring the past into present, into a tradition that we are a part of. He structures this poem into a series of commands. Moving to the present, Yeats indicates that “confusion” has fallen upon our thoughts, reiterating the logic of the gyre. His works are dying, in light of the collapsing western tradition. Readers are ordered to construct something anachronistic, which may seem outdated, but he would be living through us if we were to do his bidding. This is a postmortem poem, as if the speaker is speaking from under the tombstone. The end of the poem returns us to the beginning. Austin Clarke (20th C) Believes that Irish poetry has new responsibility, with the rise of self-governance. He viewed the “twilight mood” with scepticism. He didn’t think modern audience would like the dreamy tones of Celtic poetry. Yet, Yeats’ shadow was so broad that he has to constantly reject it over and over again. Clarke turned to celtic-roman-esqued/ medieval Ireland mixed with pagan

tradition/ He was fundamentally against Catholic traditions. He is also restaging the past in the present, to understand modernity.

Patrick Kavanagh and the Irish Literary Revival Attacks both Yeats and Joyce, for their skewed representation of Ireland. Kavanagh focuses on modern Ireland, the real thing. He emerged from a rural underclass and witnessed peasant life, and felt that the real world was misrepresented. He is therefore, more realist, as most writers were after the independence (1919) Synge’s drama for Kavanagh creates an “artificial country” “the highest function is the pure flame from the material” – K, From Monaghan to grand Canal Iniskeen Road: July Evening – Kavanagh was self-educated and thus set apart, and marooned from members of his class. This poem was written at the cusp from his transition to become a writer in Dublin, where he walked to in 1938. He is looking back to what he has lost, gearing towards a parish vision and celebrating colloquial life where he finds unity and belonging. Poem is written in the form of a Petrarchan sonnet, and always comes in 2 parts: octave and sestet. Kavanagh exploits the volta, making a clever turn in this poem. Iniskeen Road marks a seismic shift in Kavanagh’s poetry to a recognition of the realities of modern Ireland. Is “blooming” a term of dismissal or a last minute recognition of the poetic fertility he was about to reject by moving from his birthplace? – Antoinette Quinn, Introduction in Kavanagh, Selected Poems. Responding to this, I feel that fertility and poetic birth comes upon his move to Dublin. Parochia...