Women in Selected Love Poems of William Butler Yeats

Abstract

There are many dimensions to the literary talent of the celebrated Irish nationalist and writer William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)-his use of Irish myths and folklore as a resistance to British colonialism, his celebration of events in the long history of Ireland’s nationalist struggle like the Easter uprising of 1916, his philosophical musings, his visionary moments, his symbolism, his romanticism-all of which he dealt with in a variety of literary genres. It cannot perhaps be gainsaid that Yeats’s poetry occupies the pride of place in his literary oeuvre. Among the many facets of the personality of Yeats, Yeats as the lover of the Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne is well-known. Inspired by her and by other women who came into his life, he wrote a sizeable number of love poems. The aim of this paper is to analyze the representation of women in selected love poems of Yeats which will throw light on men’s attitude to women and their experience of the many shades of love. This is significant in view of the change in the status of women as a result of the happenings in the women’s movement in Ireland and in other parts of the world. The paper will argue that in spite of the emergence of the “New Woman,” active in the public sphere at the turn of the century, love poetry, including the love poetry of Yeats, continue the tradition of courtly love, celebrating the beauty and passivity of the beloved. Insights from feminist theory will be used to analyze the poems.