This blog is provided by our sir as part of our study in which I analyzed William Butler Yeats two famous poems.
First one is 'A Prayer For My Daughter' and second is 'The Second Coming'... Let's see first poem.
1.A Prayer for My Daughter
-W. B. Yeats
'A Prayer for My Daughter' is published in 1921.This is my favorite poem which I studied in my bachelor. Yeats writes this poem for his daughter Anne. Yeats wrote the poem while staying in a tower at Thoor Ballylee during the Anglo-Irish War, two days after Anne's birth on 26 February 1919. Here is kink of poem:
In this poem we can see that Yeats portrays his love and anxiety for new born daughter. As we know, every father loves his daughter so much that he is ready to do anything for her. Every father is very worried about his daughter's future. We see the same in this poem. Yeats is his daughter who wants to keep away from everything bad in this world.
The poem opens with a description of the speaker praying for his innocent infant daughter, Anne, lying in the middle of a storm “howling, and half hid.” The poet demonstrates his feelings through the use of symbols of weather. The newborn baby girl is sleeping “Under this cradle-hood and coverlid,” implying the innocence and vulnerability of Anne. Though the external world is violent, she is protected from it. The storm is a metaphor for the Irish people’s struggle for their independence, which was an uncertain political situation in Yeats’s day.
He further presents the situation of the storm with “roof-leveling wind”, representing turbulence, in the midst of which the poet has “walked and prayed for this young child an hour.” Intense and threatening forces surround her like a “flooded stream.” The poet symbolizes the sea thus: “Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.” Despite his apprehensions for his child in this turbulent world, he is hopeful for her.
The poem starts with a description of the speaker praying for his innocent infant daughter, Anne, lying in the middle of a storm “howling, and half hid.” The poet demonstrates his feelings through the use of symbols of weather. The newborn baby girl is sleeping “Under this cradle-hood and coverlid,” implying the innocence and vulnerability of Anne. Though the external world is violent, she is protected from it. The storm is a metaphor for the Irish people’s struggle for their independence, which was an uncertain political situation in Yeats’s day. He further presents the situation of the storm with “roof-leveling wind”, representing turbulence, in the midst of which the poet has “walked and prayed for this young child an hour.” Intense and threatening forces surround her like a “flooded stream.” The poet symbolizes the sea thus: “Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.” Despite his apprehensions for his child in this turbulent world, he is hopeful for her.
In this poem we see a father's concern and love for his daughter. In general we see that the daughter is protected by her father in all ways as well as in this poem.Yeats also prays to God to keep his daughter away from the bad things of contemporary bad world.
2. The Second Coming
Here is link of second poem:
In this poem the poet wants to say that Jesus will come to stop the increasing sin of evil deeds going on in the world.
As in our Hindu myth,
'જયારે પૃથ્વી પર પાપ વધશે ત્યારે હુ કંઈક ને કંઈક રૂપમાં આવતો રહીશ'.
The same is true in the Bible. Thousands of years have passed since Jesus once came and took away the sins of the people, and Yeats says that Jesus will come and it is from this point that our poem is named 'The Second Coming.'
In the first stanza Yeats says that "widening gyre" something is moving and changing, and the world will never be the same. Second line implies that the "falcon," which likely represents humanity, has become detached from its "falconer," some sort of controller or holder that once kept it in order. Now the falcon is roaming free.
On the other hand, Yeats expressed his admiration for wild birds in other poems, like "The Wild Swans at Coole," and certainly he himself was uninterested in convention and order, having broken from his Christian upbringing to pursue occult leanings. He was even expelled from the London Theological Society because he refused to follow their rules.Yeats is implying that the Second Coming means that the falcon is at last free and the world has broken from its past traditions of convention and restraint, and it can move into a new era, discovering new freedoms and new possibilities.
In the third line, "the centre cannot hold" implies that the core or heart of the world is falling apart, so something once seen as fundamental to the world is changing forever. Yeats uses the word "loosed" twice to describe the onset of the violent changes occurring, evoking an uncontrollable burst of fury, something is coming unfurled,opening, falling. A collapse is coming. This could lead to a new coming together, but most likely will lead to uncontrollable, possibly dangerous.
Yeats believed that all humans share a common, vast memory, populated by universal archetypes and myths. This collective consciousness or Spiritus Mundi, also described as the Oversoul by Carl Jung, is the source of the bizarre, apocalyptic imagery that leads the poem to its conclusion.
Thus, Yeats gives us the last sign that Jesus is coming to remove the sin that was growing in the world.
Words: 981
