W. B.

Yeats: His Life and the Poems - For

Anne Gregory & Don !y the "a##ey
Gardens
. Life and $imes
William Bulter Yeats, Irelands greatest poet, dramatist and essayist was born into a
strongly independent Irish Protestant family in Dublin on June 13,1!"#$e was the eldest of
fi%e &hildren# $is father was an artist and a man of %ery firm opinions# $is influen&e on his
young son was strong# Yeats was sensiti%e and artisti&# $e had an unhappy &hildhood# $e
says in his autobiography,' I remember little of &hildhood but its pain#'
In his early years Yeats was tutored at home by his father# When his parents mo%ed to
(ondon, Yeats attended s&hool there# $e &ontinued at a high s&hool in Dublin after his parents
returned# $olidays were spent in )ounty *ligo with his grandparents# Yeats then studied
painting for a while, but when some of his poems and arti&les were published in Irish
periodi&als, he de&ided to be a writer#
$e went to (ondon in 1++,# Yeats mi-ed with the literary &ir&le in (ondon and .oined a
religious so&iety# In 1++, he published his first boo/ of poems, 0he Wanderings 1f 1isin#
*hortly afterward he fell in lo%e with 2aud 3onne, a beautiful woman and an ardent Irish
nationalist# Yeats was interested in the myths and legends of an&ient Ireland# In his early
youth, he &olle&ted %olumes of fol/ tales and wrote his own %ersions of the old legends# $e
also helped organi4e the Irish (iterary *o&iety in (ondon and in Dublin#
5fter some years of .ournalism and &ontributions to periodi&al, he be&ame a&ti%e in
establishing the Irish 6ational 0heater and wor/ed 4ealously for the 5bbey 0heater in Dublin
7189:, where (ady 5ugusta 3regory, a playwright and a great friend of Yeats, was named
&o;dire&tor of the heater with him# 0hey en.oyed wor/ing together for many years#
Yeats be&ame a familiar figure in Dublin# $e dire&ted the 5bbey, wrote and published, and
e-pressed honest and often unpopular opinions on %arious issues of the day# $e desired to
raise national &ons&iousness by &ultural means# Irish rebellion of <aster, 11!, mo%ed him
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deeply# In 11,, he married 3eorgie $yde;(ees, who bore him a daughter and a son# In 1==
he be&ame a senator of the founded Irish >ree *tate# >or si- years he ser%ed as 2inister of
>ine 5rts in the Dublin )abinet# In 1=3, Yeats re&ei%ed the 6obel Pri4e for (iterature#
Yeats &ontinued to play an a&ti%e role in Irish life for the following se%eral years# In 13=,
he made the last of se%eral trips to the ?nited *tates# In 13+, his health began to fail, he
mo%ed to *outh >ran&e# $e died on January =+, 13 and was buried near 6i&e# In 19+, his
body was returned to Ireland and was laid to rest in Drum&ilff )hur&hyard, near the
town of *ligo#
Yeats was proud, sensiti%e, &ourageous and independent as a great poet and playwright#
Yeats su&&essfully made his poetry embody the truth of his life# 5s if to &arry this truth
beyond the gra%e, he wrote his own famous epitaph on his tombstone# 0hey are the last words
in his )olle&ted Poems@ A )ast a &old eye on life, on death, $orseman, pass byB '
.$he Poem For Anne Gregory
W# B# Yeats was the greatest figure in the poetry of the early part of =8th &entury# $is wor/
&o%ered fifty years# Yeats early lyri&al poetry and drama drew inspiration from Irish legend
and a&&ult learning, but his later writing be&ame in&reasingly engaged with his own time# In
his later wor/, his themes be&ame more uni%ersal# $is main sub.e&t was the way in whi&h the
world and the people in it are di%ided, and how they &an be made a whole# 0he following
were two poems written in his old age# 0he first poem is li/e a &on%ersation ta/ing pla&e
between the elderly poet and the lo%ely young girl, 5nne 3regory, *he was, in fa&t, the
grand;daughter of (ady 3regory, Yeats friends and patron#
F%& A''( G&(G%&Y
Never shall a young man,
Thrown into despair
By those great honey-coloured
Ramparts at your ear
Love you for yourself alone
=
And not your yellow hair .
But I can get a hair-dye
And set such colour there,
Brown, or lac!, or carrot,
That young men in despair
"ay love me for myself alone
And not my yellow hair.
I heard an old religious man
But yesternight declare
That he had found a te#t to prove
That only $od, my dear,
%ould love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair .
In this poem, the girl has &onfessed to her older friend, the poet, a &ommon feeling of
young women# *he wants to be lo%ed for her essential self, her inner nature rather than
for her physi&al beauty# 0he yellow hair, in the poem, is the symbol of her e-ternal
physi&al beauty# $owe%er, in the first stan4a the poet says that young men will always fall
in lo%e be&ause of her physi&al beauty# $e is also saying that it is impossible for a lo%er to
distinguish a womans physi&al Cualities from her inward self# *he may be able to feel a
differen&e between A herself alone A and her A yellow hair, A but ne%er &an a young man
in lo%e ma/e this distin&tion# 0he poet wonderfully uses the s/ills of A metaphor A and A
image A in this stan4a#
0he girl replies in the se&ond stan4a in a natural %oi&e, inno&ent way# *he argues that
she will &hange the &olor of her hair, dye it some other &olor@ A brown, or bla&/, or &arrot#
A *he supposes that if she is unattra&ti%e in appearan&e, young men will turn to her true
inner self# $er
argument shows how little women understand the feeling and thoughts of men# 0hrough
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the absurd argument, the poet shoes us the mystery of lo%e and beauty#
>inally, in the last stan4a, Yeats gi%es himself the last word on the &on%ersation# $e
pretends that he has tal/ed with a person full of religious /nowledge and wisdom# 0he
religious man has found some written authority that supports Yeats position# Yeats is
right, and the girl is mista/en# 6o one e-&ept 3od &an lo%e her alone# Young men are but
flesh and blood, &annot go &ompletely beyond flesh and blood in their lo%e# 0he poet is
really tal/ing about human beings generally, and his theme is %ery mu&h in the tradition
of Domanti& literature# $is last stan4a e-presses the truth of our human &ondition#
0his poem is one of Yeats lighter pie&es, a delightful dialogue between a young, lo%ely
girl and a wise friend;ob%iously an older man# 0hough it is light and humorous, it also
e-presses Yeats &onstant, serious themes@ the relation between physi&al beauty and lo%e,
and on other hand, spiritual beauty and lo%e# In this poem, Yeats has done e%erything so
lightly and s/illfully that we hardly reali4e how mu&h has gone into his poem# 1n the
surfa&e is .ust the gentle, human &on%ersation of a young girl and an older man about the
theme of lo%e and beauty# Beneath the surfa&e, howe%er lies the poets &ommentary on
human nature#
. $he Poem Don !y the "a##y Gardens
0he young and the old often ha%e %ery different ideas about life# 0he young, are full of
energy and ready to grasp the moment# 0he old, who ha%e been made wiser by
e-perien&e, are generally more &autious# Perhaps this is most true when it &omes to lo%e#
1ften, a young boy or girl will easily fall in lo%e and easily fall out of lo%e# 5 more
mature person, will /now that true lo%e ta/es time to grow and that lo%e seldom happens
Cui&/ly# 5 more mature person also /nows that lo%e &an bring not only happiness, but
also sorrow and regret# But how do older people /now these thingsE It is be&ause they
were on&e young also# 0hey made their own mista/es in life and in lo%e# *o young people
should listen &losely to the ad%i&e that the elders gi%e# 0he following poem offers some
words of wisdom about falling in lo%e too early#
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Don !y the "a##ey Gardens
&own y the salley gardens my love and I did meet'
(he passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet'
(he id me ta!e love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree'
But I eing young and foolish, with her would not agree.
In a field y the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
(he id me ta!e life easy, as the grass on the weirs'
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
In this poem, Yeats used A parallelism A s/illfully# 0he first stan4a and the se&ond stan4a
parallel ea&h other# A *he bid me ta/e life easy, as the lea%es grows on the tree A parallels
A *he bid me ta/e life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs# A 5lso, A with her would not
agree A parallels A and now am full of tears# A Yeats arranged the words, senten&es and
paragraphs perfe&tly in the poem# 5t the end of the poem the narrator feels regret for
ha%ing been young and foolish and is now full of tears# It is really a good ad%i&e#


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