Yeats' Contribution to the Literary Revival in Ireland
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Universität Leipzig,
Anglistiks.
Module: Literaturgeschichte / Geschichte der Britischen Inseln I (SS).
Vorlesung: English Literature – A Historical Survey.
Essay Title:
“Yeats’ Contribution to the Literary Revival in Ireland, Despite a Conflict of Interest with the Gaelic League.”
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1865, he was the son of John Butler Yeats who was a law student at the time and to become a distinguished painter shortly after the birth of his children. JB Yeats played a major role in the shaping of his son’s values and views concerning his Irish nationalist ideologies rather than the views of his maternal grandfather, whose loyalties lay with the British crown. Yeats grew up as a member of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy but as he grew older and began to write, his poetry portrayed sympathies towards the nationalists and home-rulers of said era. Yeats’ upbringing impacted greatly on his poetry in the latter years, with such an artistic family surrounding him, he had the benefit of being emerged in the London art scene from an early age and there he also became a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which was a mythical order. His membership with this organisation as well as his mother’s early introduction of folktales into her children’s lives led to his interest in native Irish literature and tradition, which would become his main influences for his own writings. The literary movement in Ireland spanned from the middle of the 19th Century to early 20th, its main aim was to revive interest in Irish heritage and Gaelic culture through literature and Yeats was a key figure in encouraging a new acknowledgement toward this. In 1888, alongside Douglas Hyde, Yeats published Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry. The book is an anthology of Irish folklore, which features relatable magical events for the
Universität Leipzig,
Anglistiks.
Module: Literaturgeschichte / Geschichte der Britischen Inseln I (SS).
Vorlesung: English Literature – A Historical Survey.
Essay Title:
“Yeats’ Contribution to the Literary Revival in Ireland, Despite a Conflict of Interest with the Gaelic League.”
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1865, he was the son of John Butler Yeats who was a law student at the time and to become a distinguished painter shortly after the birth of his children. JB Yeats played a major role in the shaping of his son’s values and views concerning his Irish nationalist ideologies rather than the views of his maternal grandfather, whose loyalties lay with the British crown. Yeats grew up as a member of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy but as he grew older and began to write, his poetry portrayed sympathies towards the nationalists and home-rulers of said era. Yeats’ upbringing impacted greatly on his poetry in the latter years, with such an artistic family surrounding him, he had the benefit of being emerged in the London art scene from an early age and there he also became a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which was a mythical order. His membership with this organisation as well as his mother’s early introduction of folktales into her children’s lives led to his interest in native Irish literature and tradition, which would become his main influences for his own writings. The literary movement in Ireland spanned from the middle of the 19th Century to early 20th, its main aim was to revive interest in Irish heritage and Gaelic culture through literature and Yeats was a key figure in encouraging a new acknowledgement toward this. In 1888, alongside Douglas Hyde, Yeats published Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry. The book is an anthology of Irish folklore, which features relatable magical events for the
Bibliography: • Ó Buachalla, Séamas: The Letters of P.H. Pearse. Gerrard’s Cross: Colin Smythe, 1980. • Yeats B, William: The Celtic Twilight. A. H. Bullen. London, England. 1983. Websites: • http://www.nli.ie/1916/pdf/3.4.3.pdf Accessed June 24, 2012 • http://www.nli.ie/yeats/ Accessed June 29, 2012 • http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/ Accessed June 22, 2012 • http://www.oswaldmosley.com/william-butler-yeats.htm Accessed June 29, 2012 • http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/2527 Accessed June 29, 2012 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Revival Accessed June 22, 2012 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_League Accessed June 23, 2012 [4] Ó Buachalla, Séamas (ed.). The Letters of P.H. Pearse (Gerrard’s Cross: Colin Smythe, 1980), 94. [5] Pearse, Patrick. ‘Irish Literature’, An Claidheamh Solais (13 April 1907), 9.