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 poets tradition and culture, the poets 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 doesnt 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 Wordsworths 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 Wordsworths 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 son of an Ayrshire farmer who was an avid reader and helped in his sons education. Burns work is amoung the best loved in the English language possibly because of the thought and passion he poured into his comic and dramatic poems and verse, and his sense of humour and skill for satire.
Burns could also be thought of as the saviour of English poetry because of his ability to depict everyday life in rural Scotland and his use of Scots dialect, this gave English poetry a new lease of life. He died at the age of thirty seven of rheumatic fever in Dumfries. In the first line Burns compares his love to a Red, Red Rose using a simile.By repeating Red twice he emphasises the depth and strength of the colour to the depth of his love. Burns repeats many phrases eg dry twice for emphasis and rhyming reasons. Every second and fourth line rhyme which succeeds in creating a lullaby effect.
He elaborates: "Newly sprung in June" This is to show that his love is still young and vulnerable but will keep growing until it becomes full and strong and will blossom into full radiance and beauty. Burns then compares his love to a beautiful song that is sweetly played, again a simile.He is comparing a beautiful tune to a beautiful love that will never age as music never ages. In the following line Burns directly addresses his love for the first time using an example of Scots dialect: "My bonnie lass" Throughout the poem many examples of Scots dialect are visible and these succeed in constantly reminding the reader that the poem is easier to relate to, the love is easier to relate to.
By directly addressing his love he makes her appear more human and the relationship more realistic. Burns actually addresses her six times throughout the poem. In the second verse, he talks of his deep love for his bonnie. He is in love with her as much as she is beautiful and will continue to love her: "Till a the seas dry".This is the same as saying he will love her for all time, she should never doubt the sincerity and commitment of his ...
