Yeats: 'a terrible beauty is born'

Aims of the course

This course aims to:
1. Study poetry from different periods of Yeats' career
2. Find ideas and recurrent interests in Yeats' poetry
3. Analyse the importance of Yeats' historical period to his poetry

Content

“Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry” said W H Auden. Yeats certainly lived in a time of intensity. The Irish War against the English occupation, the civil war, the First World War, the rise of Fascism - the violence seemed continuing. And Yeats' poetry weaves this history into its fabric. He also uses violent speakers, violent figures and violent imagery. The assertion in 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree', written in 1888, that 'I shall have some peace' was not to be his future.

But it was not only the violence of history, but also the violence of love that became a hallmark of his poetry. His love for Maud Gonne, who felt no equal love for him, was a theme of intense anguish. Women in his poetry are very often powerful figures with violent characteristics. Their personal and their public world are powerfully intertwined and the one is not a reprieve from the other. As he writes of Maud Gonne, 'Was there another Troy for her to burn?'

But he is also a poet of contemplation, someone who imagines being beyond the pain of the everyday, as in 'Lapis Lazuli' when he imagines three Chinese men climbing a mountain. 'On all the tragic scene they stare…Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes, Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.' His interest in the occult also enacts this disengagement from the everyday maelstrom. In it he tried to find a plane where all of history becomes a discernible and revolving pattern, the 'widening gyre'; a release from the patternless and brutal day to day.

But, clearly, the reason why we will study his poetry is because of the words he used and ordered to explain, represent and evoke the experiences of being human. It is this richness of language, this excitement in art that the course will look at.

Presentation of the course

The course will mix lecture with guided questions and class discussion.

Class sessions

1. Poems of the 19th century - Yeats' collections from The Wanderings of Oisin (1889) through to The Wind among the Reeds (1899) show him in his early Romantic phase, often dubbed the Celtic Twilight, typified by a lyric melancholy.

2. Poems of the 1900s and 1910s - By the time of The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910) we start to see the Yeats of steel and bitterness, thwarted love and a new more idiomatic style.

3. Poems of the 1920s - The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) leads the way to The Tower (1928) to produce the dense, allusive style that marks his engagement with Modernism and his passionate record of war in Ireland.

4. Poems of the 1930s - The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933) shows Yeats contemplating friends and time passing in a style far cooler than the lushness of his early diction.

5. Last poems - New Poems (1938) and Last Poems (1939) carry on his fierce self-examination and mark his final attempts at acceptance of the violence of human life.

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes for this course are:
1. To engage with some of Yeats' most celebrated poems
2. To see the variety of his poetic style
3. To appreciate some of his constantly recurring subject matter

Required reading

W B Yeats - Collected Poetry (any edition)

Typical week: Monday to Friday

Courses run from Monday to Friday. For each week of study, you select a morning (Am) course and an afternoon (Pm) course. The maximum class size is 25 students. 

Courses are complemented by a series of daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.

Evaluation and Academic Credit 

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses. 

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £75 per essay.

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.

Certificate of attendance

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically after the programme.