Comparison of "Meditations in Time of Civil War" by Yeats and "Ruins of a Great House" by Walcott
‘Poets interestingly explore the themes of possession and ownership in poems about home.’
In both “Meditations in Time of Civil War”, by Yeats, and in “Ruins of a great house”, by Walcott, the themes of possession and ownership are explored in a number of ways. In the Walcott poem, there is the idea that ownership is a losing battle that, inevitably, anyone who tries to claim ownership of something will eventually lose. This can be seen in the line “the leprosy of Empire.” By personifying empire with the characteristics of Leprosy it is clear the Walcott is trying to say that Empire is-by using the analogy that Empire is a Leper-only going to decay and collapse over time. By the very nature of Empire-the act of claiming ownership of different lands-this is also a comment on ownership in general. The Yeats poem explores this as well and says “when the master’s buried the mice can play.” This line explores the idea that Walcott has presented, but places it on individuals as opposed to empires. Yeats implies that ownership is futile as, with the inevitability of death, comes the inevitability that one day ownership will be lost when-as Yeats puts it-“the [master is] buried”.
The fact that “mice can play” once the “master’s buried” brings together a new idea of owning-or possessing-people and the idea that through this ownership comes a hierarchy which leads to people being treated like “mice”. The fact that they can now “play”, now that the master has gone, implies that the master oppressed them through his ownership of them. However this section of the poem where the “mice play” is linked to a previous section which talked of dreams. They are linked through rhyme. In the previous section, which starts “Mere dreams, mere dreams!” and continues until “As if some marvellous empty sea-shell flung”, has the rhyming scheme A.B.A.B.A. The fact that Yeats has also given the section, that includes the mice playing, the same rhyming scheme, indicates that this is a
In both “Meditations in Time of Civil War”, by Yeats, and in “Ruins of a great house”, by Walcott, the themes of possession and ownership are explored in a number of ways. In the Walcott poem, there is the idea that ownership is a losing battle that, inevitably, anyone who tries to claim ownership of something will eventually lose. This can be seen in the line “the leprosy of Empire.” By personifying empire with the characteristics of Leprosy it is clear the Walcott is trying to say that Empire is-by using the analogy that Empire is a Leper-only going to decay and collapse over time. By the very nature of Empire-the act of claiming ownership of different lands-this is also a comment on ownership in general. The Yeats poem explores this as well and says “when the master’s buried the mice can play.” This line explores the idea that Walcott has presented, but places it on individuals as opposed to empires. Yeats implies that ownership is futile as, with the inevitability of death, comes the inevitability that one day ownership will be lost when-as Yeats puts it-“the [master is] buried”.
The fact that “mice can play” once the “master’s buried” brings together a new idea of owning-or possessing-people and the idea that through this ownership comes a hierarchy which leads to people being treated like “mice”. The fact that they can now “play”, now that the master has gone, implies that the master oppressed them through his ownership of them. However this section of the poem where the “mice play” is linked to a previous section which talked of dreams. They are linked through rhyme. In the previous section, which starts “Mere dreams, mere dreams!” and continues until “As if some marvellous empty sea-shell flung”, has the rhyming scheme A.B.A.B.A. The fact that Yeats has also given the section, that includes the mice playing, the same rhyming scheme, indicates that this is a