"The Fascination of What's Difficult"

Rhyme: aaabcccbddeffe

Meter: pentameter,trochaic

Form/Stanzaic Structure: monologue, slow movement, 1 stanza, 4 sentences

Speaker: implied author

Audience: theatre goers, producers, writers, critics

Tone: Hostile toward the issue of theatre criticism and the effects of theatre management on writing .

Diction: formal

Syntax: uses a variety of phrasing throughout

Sound Pattern: varied sound pattern that slows the reader’s pace.

Imagery: illness: theatre business, locked stable: theatre management, plays: writer’s life and blood

Symbolic Language: Olympus, used to make the reader stop and consider the author’s efforts in his writing.

Figurative Devices: metaphors

Theme: What the purpose of an author laboring over his work, if the management will take away the heart of his work.

Argument: Only a writer should be able to edit his works.

Rhetoric: States it through long intricate phrasing.

Flaws: The reference to Olympus on the first readings seems not to fit, but eventually ties to the Herculean work of writing.

Summary: Beginning of the third sentence is a turn in line 8 with “A cure on my plays.” Starts the poem a reflection on how writing plays has taking the joy of writing from him, and changed it to a near impossible task, where is mind is fettered, and afterwards it is changed to please others again.

"A Coat"

Rhyme: abbacdeedf

Meter: varies

Form/Stanzaic Structure: 11 lines, 1 stanza, meditative, monologue

Speaker: implied author

Audience: implied author

Tone: reflective, hostile

Diction: informal

Syntax: past tense

Sound Pattern:

Imagery: The mythological references in his poems are like embroidery covering a coat, they make it more beautiful and rich.

Symbolic Language: coat: poetry, embroidery: mythology, critics: thieves

Figurative Devices: metaphors

Theme: The author would have been better off not writing about myths, then the manner in which the critics twisted his intensions.

Argument: A writer should be allowed to own his work and what it stands off and not have others twist his intentions.

Rhetoric: reflection

Flaws: Turn between the fifth and sixth lines.

Summary: In starts with a reflective mood about how worked to make his poetry rich in meaning to have it misunderstood by those that read it. Begins with a praise of his work and ends with an attack on his actual audience compared to the imagined audience.

"To a Young Beauty"

Rhyme: aabccb

Meter: alternates between tetrameter and trimeter

Form/Stanzaic Structure: letter/monologue, fast movement due to the meter

Speaker: implied author

Audience: other poetry writers

Tone: condenscending

Diction: uses simply language to reflective the simplicity, author is criticizing in other writers.

Syntax: convoluted syntax

Sound Pattern:

Imagery:

Symbolic Language: Ezekiel, Beaujolet, Landor, Donne

Figurative Devices: metaphor

Theme: It is better to write a few better pieces then a multitude of simplistic works.

Argument: Writer should strive to be the best in their field and study the best writers of his time.

Rhetoric:

Flaws:

Summary: Writing may not pay well, but writers should work hard at their craft and study the best writers so that they can perfect their art. It is more important that a writer have a well written work with complex ideas and form , then a simple sing-song nursery rhyme.

"On Being Asked for a War Poem"

Rhyme: abcabc, end rhyme

Meter: pentameter, iambic

Form/Stanzaic Structure: reflection, slow

Speaker: implied author

Audience: imagined audience

Tone: Defensive

Diction: formal

Syntax: multitude of phrasing, only one complete sentence.

Sound Pattern:

Imagery: young girl, old man, gift, winter’s night

Symbolic Language:

Figurative Devices: metaphors

Theme: Poets should stay out of writing on political issues, because the intention of the author is misinterpreted or made extreme.

Argument: Separate art from politics

Rhetoric: States is argument as a type of reflection.

Flaws: Several of Yeats’s earlier poem were politically charged and provided fuel for Nationalism.

Summary: Yeats’s is refusing to write a poem that justifies the war against the British, because he now sees his intensions earlier Nationalist works as naïve. He wanted to support the Nationalist cause, but not fighting.

"To Ireland in the Coming Times"

Rhyme: end rhyme, couplets

Meter: tetrameter, prevents the poem from heroic couplets

Form/Stanzaic Structure: Movement is slow, Monologue

Speaker: implied author

Audience: critics, Yeats’s opposition

Tone: juxtaposition of defensive and confrontational

Diction: formal and mystical diction

Syntax: Subject of the sentences are the implied author, verb is present tense passive

Sound Pattern: 1st stanza alliteration of the “b” sound, 2nd stanza “o” sound, 3rd stanza “ew” sound

Imagery: Refers to previous famous Irish writers, references to the supernatural angels, elementals, Druids. Repetition of “red-rose bordered hem” in each stanza, repetition of the word “measure”

Symbolic Language: red-rose bordered hem is symbolic of the implied author’s English background, tutor rose.

Figurative Devices:

Theme: The author is as worthy as those nationalist writers before him. The author does more than just rhyme, he includes the oldest parts of Ireland in his work.

Argument: Prove that his works are equal to if not better than the other Irish writers.

Rhetoric: 1st stanza begins with “know” changes to “nor” ends with “while” red-rose bordered hem changes from because to after and last sentence is after.

Flaws: Beginning of the 3rd stanza when he starts writing as addressing of unrequited love.

Summary: 1st stanza is arguing that he is a true Irish man, regardless of his families background, because he is connected to Ireland’s ancient past. 2nd stanza, he is among the great Irish writers because his work goes deeper than traditional nationalist authors to his perceived roots of Ireland, he is even better because he writers of the sacred instead of the mundane. Last stanza, he is writing for Maude Gonne, a more extreme Irish Nationalist with which he is deeply in love, but she has rejected him for not being devoted solely to Irish Nationalism. His heart is for those connected to the ancient Irish past. It will proven through time, that he has a true love of Ireland.

"To a Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine"

Rhyme: Couplets

Meter: Iambic pentameter, effects the tone seems to make it more of an attack.

Form/Stanzaic Structure: short, fast poem, 1 stanza 4 lines, monologue

Speaker: implied author

Audience: author’s detractors, most like Maude Gonne

Tone: author knows best

Diction:

Syntax:

Sound Pattern: alliteration is the second line increase the speed of the poem.

Imagery: “dog that praised his fleas” works should not be praised just because they are written by Nationalists.

Symbolic Language: Yeats is the dog, and his imitators are parasites without substance.

Figurative Devices: metaphor

Theme: A writer must look to the greats before him, but needs to make the work his own, rather than a copy of the greats.

Argument: Places the author’s works among the greats since his is already being copied.

Rhetoric: direct address “You say….”

Flaws: He refers but does not name those that he has been accused of praising, and how the author views his own work.

Summary: A writer need to know the greats that came before him, but the writing must be his own, not just an imitation. Good writing builds on those that cam before, but should not be parasitic.