Discuss Yeats As a Poet of Love with Reference to Some of His Poems.

Answer

Discuss Yeats as a poet of love with reference to some of his poems. [2020, 2017]

Or, Illustrate W.B. Yeats as a poet of love. [2015] ✪✪✪   

Modern poets usually deal with the themes of alienation and fragmentation in their poetry. However, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is a little different. Love is the main force that moves most of his poems. In his early writings, love appears as a dream or an imagination. But his meeting with Maud Gonne changed his life and poetry. His love for her was pure, spiritual, and lifelong. Through love, Yeats discovered beauty, pain, and the mystery of life.  

Early Dream of Love: In his early poetry, love was like a dream and full of imagination. His heroes searched for ideal beauty in the world of dreams. These poems were influenced by the romantic spirit of Shelley. Love was not real or human in this stage; it was only an unreal desire. The poems in “The Rose” (1893) and “The Wind Among the Reeds” (1899) show this mystical tone. The women in these poems are fairy-like and far away from the real world. 

Love for Maud Gonne: When Yeats met Maud Gonne, his poetry found its living subject. He was twenty-three when he first saw her, and he loved her for life. She was tall, beautiful, and proud. She became the symbol of beauty, passion, and Ireland itself. His love for her was full of devotion and admiration. In “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”, he says, 

“I have spread my dreams under your feet, 

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” 

These lines show his humble love and worshipful heart. Though Maud never accepted his love, her image appears again and again in his verses.

Pain and Disillusionment: Maud Gonne’s refusal and later marriage to John MacBride broke Yeats’s heart. His later love poems became full of sadness and frustration. The poet could not forget her, but his love turned into a spiritual struggle. In