W. B. Yeats as a modern poet

                    Introduction

William Yeats is often considered to be the 'last romantic' as opposed to being the founding father of modern poetry. Yet one can not simply place Yeats into just one mould, one rigid and defined style of poetry because as a writer during both periods of Romanticism and Modernism, Yeats straddles the line between the two periods and incorporates 'romantic ideologies' into his modern work. His poems seen as the examples of modern liyerature. In his poems, we found astounding variety, political note, realism, religion, mysticism and so on. And all these matters have made him a true modern poet. By nature he was a dreamer, a thinker,who fell under the spell of the folklore and the superstitions of the Irish peasantry. He is a prominent poet in modern times for his sense of moral wholeness of humanity and history.

            Elements of Mysticism

Yeats may be credited primary with the owner of contributing the elements of mysticism to modern poetry. He juxtaposes historical figures with Irish legends and myths and hence create something new and different, it is to be considered that Yeats is one of the writers that utilized the elements of the supernatural stemming from Irish mythology, and one of the fewer who also integrated romantic notions into his poetry. Yeats is the only modern poet who initiated occult system and mysticism in his poetry. Mysticism runs throughout his poetry in which the Gods and fairies of the Celtic mythology live again. To Yeats, a poet is very close to a mystic and poet's mystical experience give to the poem a spiritual world.

                    Obscurity

It is not at all surprising that obscurity in Yeats poetry is due to his occultism, mysticism, Irish mythology, use of symbolism and theory of 'Mask'. Yeats was keen to replace traditional Greek and Roman and mythological figures with figures from Irish folklore which results in obscurity. The juxtaposition of the past and the present, The spiritual and the physical, and many such dissimilar concepts and his condensed rich language make his poetry of obscure.

         Modernism in 'Second Coming'

After the World War -I people got totally shattered and they suffered from frustration boredom, anxiety and loneliness. Yeats has used different type of landscape to symbolise the spiritual and psychological states of modern man." The Second Coming" is a superb example of Yeats modernism as in the poem Yeats portrays the modern chaotic and disordered condition after World War -I and the poet tends to escape from the situation.

       " Turning and turning

       In the widening gyred.

        The falcon cannot 

         hear the falconer."

This poem has been seen as an example of modern zeitgiest literature at once depicting the decentring and internal fissure of 20th century culture and analysing the parting of a classical psychological period.

Yeats portrays that the war has been ended, its effects are continuously affecting the people of modern age. He says that there remains insecurity and disorder everywhere. Yeats feels gloomy and fears of a stormy future. He knows that the world is full of disorder and there, "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."

 Modern elements in "Leda and  the Swan"

The use of the swan in the poem "Leda and the Swan" is intriguing because usually swans represent love and beauty, yet in this instance they represent power, destruction, and fearfulness. They are such serene animals, so this poem contradicts the common image. Not only in the bird terrifying, it is also a God- it is divine. As Yeats characterizes this generally gentle creature as volatile, he manipulates poetic conventions, a common theme of the modernism period. During this time, this poem begins to embrace the modernism idea of imagisn - it paints a vivid image, an image that can stand alone without any other context.

The poem can be read without knowing the historical background, and it can be a piece of art - however dark it may be. This piece also seems to be a part of his transition to modernist writing. It challenges the usual poetic conventions of symbolism in the case of the swan; and as it displays the problems that came about when religion overpowers the human experience he alludes to the politics he is facing. This poem also rejects the romantic theme of beauty in poetry. It strays away from nature, and takes a look into history as well as politics. Through his language, Yeats created and image throughout "Leda and the Swan" that exemplified themes of modernism.

                 Pessimism

Like Eliot, Yeats poetry is marked with pessimism. After his appointment with Maud Gonne and his disenchantment with the Irish National Movement, Yeats started writing bitter and Pessimistic poems. But he tried to dispel this feeling by philosophizing in his poems. "To A Shade", "When Helen Lived," and teo Byzantium poems along with many more of his poems reflected this mood. Yeats believe in magic as he was anti -rationalist. By "Magic" Yeats means the whole area of occult knowledge. Occult was very much common in modern poetry for numerology was lately been introduced in nineteenth century.

Yeats was an anti- war poet and does not admire war fought under any pretext. In his last years, he wrote poems dealing with the crumbling of modern civilization due to war. He believed that a Revolutionary change is in offing. Humanism is another modern trait in literature. The threat of war cast of gloomy shadow on the poetic sensibility of the modern poets. The sad reality of life paved the way of humanitarian aspect in modern literature. Yeats poetry also abounds in Humanism.

                 Conclusion

As one of the most important figures in the transitional period from Romanticism to Modernism ,William Butler Yeats struggled for a systematic updating of subject matter and styles throughout his literary career and wrote extraordinary poems in every school he was involved in weather it was Post - Romanticism, Aestheticism, Symbolism or Modernism. In his later years, skillfully combining reality, symbols and metaphysics together, he found his own unique system of philosophy and symbolism. Constantly self criticism and self examination make Yeats finally find what he called anti self. The anti self gives the poet new inspiration and poetic power. Its modernist quality remarkably reflected in his poems.