Yeats Burns And Wordsworth Poems Essays - Scottish Literature

Yeats Burns And Wordsworth Poems In this assignment I will compare and contrast three poems based on the theme of love. I will look at ?He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven' by W.B Yeats, Robert Burns' ?A Red,Red Rose' and the ?Lucy Poems' by Wordsworth. I will focus on each poet's tradition and culture, the poet's use of language and the similarities and differences between each poem. I will conclude the assignment with my personal response. ?He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven' was written by W.B Yeats. William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin in 1865. He abandoned his painting career after only three years to pursue a writing career with lyrics and plays. He eventually developed his own individual style and his work was known for being particularly ?Irish'. He went on writing for the rest of his life, and eventually died in 1948. In the poem ?He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven' W.B Yeats expresses his love for Maud Gonne. Gonne was an extreme Nationalist who rejected W.B Yeats and eventually married Major John MacBride in 1903. After this period there is a noticeable change in Yeats' poetry, perhaps because he realised his dreams of a life with Maud could never become a reality. In ?He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven' the tone is calm and peaceful, due to the sibilants used, nasal and ?L' sounds which combine to create a dreamlike tone: "Silver light" "Softly" "Embroidered cloths" To help the tone flow peacefully along there are no exclamation marks, dashes or monosyllables to interrupt the flow. Yeats creates a soft rhyming melody and tune, almost like a lullaby. The natural stress in each word helps to create the rhythm, A B A B C D C D. Yeats' use of language creates very clear visual images, eg ?heaven' has connotations of peace ,serenity, almost a nirvana. Likewise ?embroidered' has connotations of perfection, an infinite array of colours. Throughout the poem Yeats concentrates on colours, especially different shades of blues of the sky, representing the passage of time, seasons changing but that throughout all the changes the sky still remains beautiful yet unattainable. In the first four lines of the poem Yeats creates a detailed image of heaven and its perfection and beauty. Through this he states his wishes/ In the following four lines he reveals what he would do with those wishes. He lays his soul bare, and shows the depth of his love by declaring his undying love for Maud Gonne. The only person who deserves such wealth as the heavens, is Maud. If Yeats were God, and owned the heavens, the only one worthy of receiving them would be Maud. He elaborates on this by saying even the heavens would only be good enough for her to walk upon. By stating this, Yeats is exalting his love: she is like a Goddess and he is undeserving of her. He deems himself unworthy and humbles himself. In the following line Yeats writes: "But I, being poor, have only my dreams." Through this, Yeats suddenly becomes more realistic: he knows he is not God and he knows he doesn't own the heavens. The only thing of value and beauty he owns are his dreams. He has made himself vulnerable by spreading all his dreams and desires before Maud, and now she must decide if she will return his love and make his wildest dreams come true, or trample and tear his cloths and shatter his dreams. The poem ends softly: "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." He is waiting anxiously to see her reaction and is gently pleading that she will not reject him. Through this last line he is begging her to be kind: she has his heart and dreams in her hand; she has the power to decide his fate. This poem is similar to Burns' and Wordsworth's poems in many ways. All three sound like a song, a gentle calming lullaby. Each poem creates visual imagery from nature surrounding them. They are also similar due to the language used. None of the poems use complex, elaborate, difficult, language but instead, plain language that is easily understood by all, Burns' poem also contains some Scots dialect. The three poems are also similar as the subject of all three poems is love. In both Wordsworth's and Yeats' poem the love was unreturned. The most striking thing about ?A Red, Red Rose' by Robert Burns is the ScotS dialect used. Burns was born in 1759, as the