W.B. Yeats Poetry Essay Guide (HSC Module B)

1Introduction

Today, we’ll be looking at W.B. Yeats’ poetry in the updated HSC Syllabus. Below is an unpacking of the new syllabus description for HSC Module B.

From NESA: “Students develop detailed analytical and critical knowledge of a substantial literary text. Through increasingly informed personal responses to the text in its entirety, students understand and appreciate the text’s distinctive qualities, notions of meaning, and significance. Students study ONE prescribed text, focusing on an analysis of the text’s construction, content and language. This enables students to develop informed personal perspectives of the text as well as an understanding of its cultural contribution, basing their judgements on evidence drawn from their critical reading. They evaluate the context of the text’s composition and reception, investigate and evaluate the perspectives of others, and explore the ideas in the text, further strengthening their personal perspectives.”

Important things to note:

• increasingly informed and personal responses to the text in its entirety (need to get quotes from beginning, middle and end, and develop PERSONAL response so you can use first person e.g. the poems have formed my understanding of the disillusionment during the post WWI period”. Module B is the only module where you can use first person in your response. While the majority of teachers support that, some schools still insist you using third person, so just refer to yourself as “the audience” if your teacher discourages 1st person). (think about how all parts of the text work together to form a cohesive text, so think about the repeated motifs/ideas throughout the poems.)
• significance (refers to the enduring value of the text)
• text’s composition and reception (“reception” means you need to talk about how the poem affected Modernist audiences and also audiences of today)

Let’s explore the main ideas of W.B. Yeats’ poetry:

2‘The Wild Swans at Coole’

Yeats reveals how realising nature’s immortal youth and cohesiveness evokes a melancholic contemplation of an individual’s inevitable ageing and isolation. Being dejected from his own lack of romantic success with Maud Gonne, he views the swans’ vitality and collectiveness with both yearning and feelings of despondency, as he is aware he won’t be able to achieve the same.

3‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’

Yeats reveals the meaningless nature of war through focalising on an individual’s stoic acceptance of his mortality as he sacrifices his life to a political cause that he has no connection to. He rationalises his wartime contribution as not a patriotic act, but a pursuit of personal fulfilment, despite it only being momentary.

4‘Easter, 1916’

Yeats reflects his initial dismissal of the rebels, yet ultimately admires their devotion to their political cause and ultimate sacrifice, revealing his conflicted response to violent uprising. He is initially critical of their violence, viewing them as wasting their youth for a needlessly rash uprising. Yet, he ultimately acknowledges their political contributions.

5‘The Second Coming’

Yeats reveals how overwhelming upheaval in external forces leads to an unrestorable disintegration of society. Through biblically alluding to the Second Coming, he subverts its supposed enlightenment through a bleak portrayal of an apocalyptic world.

6‘Sailing to Byzantium’

Yeats presents the ephemerality and inevitable ageing of mortal existence and instead proposes art as a way to immortalise one’s legacy.

7‘An Acre of Grass’

Yeats struggles to reconcile with his physical decline, ultimately seeking to preserve his creative legacy through pursuing imaginative renewal and intellectual vitality.

8‘Long-Legged Fly’

Yeats proposes that inward contemplation is more important than active intervention to bring about significant changes in civilisation.

9Final thoughts

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