William Butler Yeats "The Rose Tree" Poem animation traditional Irish song

1916 Easter Rising. In the striking work The Rose Tree, Yeats recalls an imagined conversation between Padraig Pearse and James Connolly, the two most prominent leaders of the Rising: Unmistakably, Pearse and Connolly state that they are willing to give their own lives to see the restoration of an Ireland governed by the Irish. The rather overt symbolism Yeats uses is that of Christs crucifixion; Pearse and Connolly believe that Ireland will be resurrected anew if they spill their blood for it. Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939) explored many themes, including Irish folklore, spirituality, unrequited love, and Irelands struggle for independence. Yeats helped lead the Irish Renaissance, a movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that sought to restore the influence of Gaelic language and culture on Irish literature. Long-Legged Fly, which appeared in The Nation almost three months after the poet died in 1939, is included in Yeatss Last Poems and Two Plays (1939). William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was born in Dublin. His father was a lawyer and a well-known portrait painter. Yeats was educated in London and in Dublin, but he spent his summers in the west of Ireland in the family's summer house at Connaught. The young Yeats was very much part of the fin de siècle in London; at the same time he was active in societies that attempted an Irish literary revival. His first volume of verse appeared in 1887, but in his earlier period his dramatic production outweighed his poetry both in bulk and in import. Together with Lady Gregory he founded the Irish Theatre, which was to become the Abbey Theatre, and served as its chief playwright until the movement was joined by John Synge. His plays usually treat Irish legends; they also reflect his fascination with mysticism and spiritualism. The Countess Cathleen (1892), The Land of Heart's Desire (1894), Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), The King's Threshold (1904), and Deirdre (1907) are among the best known. After 1910, Yeats's dramatic art took a sharp turn toward a highly poetical, static, and esoteric style. His later plays were written for small audiences; they experiment with masks, dance, and music, and were profoundly influenced by the Japanese Noh plays. Although a convinced patriot, Yeats deplored the hatred and the bigotry of the Nationalist movement, and his poetry is full of moving protests against it. He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922. Yeats is one of the few writers whose greatest works were written after the award of the Nobel Prize. Whereas he received the Prize chiefly for his dramatic works, his significance today rests on his lyric achievement. His poetry, especially the volumes The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), and Last Poems and Plays (1940), made him one of the outstanding and most influential twentieth-century poets writing in English. His recurrent themes are the contrast of art and life, masks, cyclical theories of life (the symbol of the winding stairs), and the ideal of beauty and ceremony contrasting with the hubbub of modern life. Kind Regards Jim Clark All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2009 The Rose Tree "O words are lightly spoken", said Pearse to Connolly; "Maybe a breath of polite words Has withered our Rose Tree; Ore maybe but a wind that blows Across the bitter sea." "It needs to be but watered", James Connolly replied, "To make the green come out again And spread on every side, And shake the blossom from the bud To be the garden's pride." But where can we draw water", Said Pearse to Connolly, "When all the wells are parched away? O plain as plain can be There's nothing but our own red blood Can make a right Rose Tree."

Author: poetryanimations
Keywords: poem animation yeats ts eliot pearse tradtional irish auden ezra pound caprani belloc macneice kipling wilfred owen sassoon cecil day lewis war ww1 chesterton column
Added: March 31, 2009

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