THE EVOLUTION

OF YEATS:
FROM
HEARTBROKEN
ROMANTIC TO
MASTER
MODERNIST

BY ISHANI CHOWDHURY
SEMESTER 1
BA (MAJOR) COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH
2024-2025
JOGAMAYA DEVI COLLEGE
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to give my warmest thanks to my Professor, Miss Nandini Saha, for her

invaluable guidance, feedback, and support throughout my research. Her extensive

knowledge and experience were instrumental in the completion of this project.

I would also like to express my gratitude to the various journals that provided the information

that I have incorporated in my project.

I am also grateful to be blessed with parents who were supportive and encouraging as I was

working on this project.

Lastly, I thank Jogamaya Devi College, affiliated to University of Calcutta for curating a

course that involves research and dissertation, as it helped me build my analytical skills and

prepared me to pursue a Master’s degree in the future.

craft, in addition to his self, to maintain an enduring influence on the colossal English literary

history. Yeats’s early work drew heavily on Romantic themes, inspired from his idols, his

work ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ (1890) celebrates a tranquil rural setting as an escape from

the chaos of urban life, reflecting Romantic Era ideals of returning to nature, and is derivative

of William Wordsworth’s work, known for its reverence of nature’s spiritual and restorative

aura, his poem, ‘Ephemera’ (1887) reflects on fleeting love and the inevitability of loss, a key

Romantic theme, central to John Keats’s poems, and ‘The Stolen Child’ (1886), draws on the

works of Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Blake, incorporating Irish folklore of faeries and

changelings, hallmarks of Romantic fascination with the mystical and otherworldly. Yeats

acknowledges William Blake in particular, describing him as one of the "great artificers of

God who uttered great truths to a little clan". Yeats’s poetic brilliance was acknowledged

early, but the works he published in the years that followed cemented his position as a master

in the realm of English Literature, and a pioneer of Modern Poetry.

In 1889, Yeats encountered Muad Gonne, who went on to become his muse and unrequited

love. His works during his tryst with Gonne reflect the progression of his poetry, from the

escapist nature of the Romantic Period to the pragmatic Modern Era, with ‘When You Are

Old’ (1893) expressing deep, personal emotion, a signature of Romantic poetry, with the poet

addressing the woman he loves, believed widely to be Gonne, and reflecting on the idealized

past of their love, a common Romantic theme, highlighting the transient nature of youth and

beauty, but with a modern realist tone, acknowledging the inevitable decay of beauty and the

passage of time, a mirror to his own feelings. The personal, intimate nature of the address are

indicative of the modern psychological introspection that would characterize Yeats’s later

works. ‘The Rose’ (1893) symbolizes absolute beauty and unrequited love, in addition to his
growing interest in Irish Nationalism, due to Gonne’s influence, a staunch nationalist, herself.

The hints at his nascent desire to connect Ireland’s ancient past with contemporary cultural

revival, a theme he would modernize in later works. Yeats’s romanticism is apparent in his

lyrical style and preoccupation with transcendental beauty. His unrequited love for Gonne

was a primary theme in ‘He Wishes for Clothes of Heaven’ (1899). Written during the height

of Yeats’s unrequited love for Maud Gonne, it reflects both his adoration and his

vulnerability. The poem juxtaposes grand, celestial imagery with the poet’s honest admission

of material and emotional poverty. It centres on themes of love, longing, and self-sacrifice,

embodying the romantic ideal of the lover’s devotion, even at great peril. Though steeped in

romanticism, akin to many of Yeats’s other works during the 1890s, the poem contains

elements that prefigure Yeats’s later modernist work. One poem that is distinct despite being

written during this era is ‘The Wind Among the Reeds’ (1899) which portrays nature as a

source of mystical revelation, with the reeds whispering a form of divine communication,

echoing the Romantic fascination with the spiritual in nature. Yeats uses beautiful and

evocative imagery to suggest the possibility of transcendence and a connection to the

sublime. However, in indication to the growing Modernist influence of his poetry, the wind

and reeds symbolize both external nature and internal emotional states, suggesting a more

complex, multi-faceted approach to interpreting the world, with the poem’s structure and

shifts in tone leaning towards a more modernist tendency of disjointedness and multiple

perspectives. Perhaps the end of Yeats’s Romantic Era was marked by the culmination of his

tryst with Maud Gonne, who after rejecting his multiple proposals, in 1899, 1900, and 1901,

married John MacBride in 1903. ‘No Second Troy’ (1910) signifies Yeats’s shift toward an

early modernist style, merging his personal disillusionment with Gonne, as well as serving a

broader critique of the destructive ideals she embodied, drawing comparisons to a classical

allusion, Helen of Troy, reinterpreted by Yeats through the lens of modern discontent. After
his heartbreak, Yeats began to temper his romantic idealism with skepticism, and this poem is

a prime example of his, then growing focus, on historical inevitability, human flaws, and the

futility of action, foreshadowing significant themes in his post war works. Yeats’s

disillusionment with a utopian society deepened further post the devastation that followed

World War I (1914 -1918). His poem, ‘The Irishman Foresees His Death’ (1918) is a

reflection of the individual and collective fate of Irish soldiers. It meditates on destiny,

personal sacrifice, and th e conflict between one’s identity and historical forces. Yeats

emphasizes the lasting effects of war, and the tension between heroism and futility, aligning

with modernist concerns about the disintegration of traditional values during a time of global

upheaval. Yeats’s builds upon these themes in ‘Easter 1916’ (1921), which commemorates the

Easter Rising while grappling with the transformation of ordinary individuals into heroic

martyrs. The refrain, “A terrible beauty is born,” encapsulates the paradoxical nature of their

sacrifice. Yeats’s ambivalence reflects a mature approach to nationalism, moving beyond

romantic glorification to question the costs of political action and the complexities of

historical legacy. Adding to Yeats’s grief was the Irish War of Independence (1919 – 1921),

‘The Second Coming’ (1921), being a masterpiece born of the frustration of his fragmented

soul. The imagery of disintegration and chaos (“things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”)

akin to an apocalyptic vision, indicates Yeats’s perceiving civilization as a whole on the verge

of complete collapse, with the “rough beast’ embodying an ambiguous future.

By the late 1920s, Yeats had become an inspiration for young poets, especially those of the

Edwardian decade, the early verse of the Georgians, and some of the Imagists, who rightfully

believed him to be one of the greatest masters of writing in the English Language. His

influence was and till date is far-reaching and unique. Yeats in his poem ‘Sailing to

Byzantium’ (1927) expresses his yearning for artistic and spiritual immortality. The journey
to Byzantium symbolizes an escape from the decaying physical world to a realm of eternal art

and intellect and epitomizes Yeats’s modernist engagement with aging, mortality, and

transcendence. It shifts from personal concerns to universal reflections, emphasizing the

artist’s role and interest in shaping enduring meaning. Similar themes appear in ‘The Tower’

(1928) with Yeats reflecting on his advancing age, legacy, and the disconnection between

youthful vitality and aging wisdom, the tower becomes a metaphor for solitude and

contemplation, fusing his own concerns with broader existential themes, blending modernist

introspection seamlessly with his romantic fascination with symbolism. The poem

exemplifies his ability to reimagine traditional forms for contemporary concerns. Similar to

all creative geniuses, Yeats too reflected on his artistic career in his twilight years, notably in

‘The Circus Animals’ Desertion’, the poem a poignant reflection on the inadequacies of his

artistic achievements and the deceptive allure of his earlier romantic ideals. The poem strips

away artifice, confronting raw truths about life, creativity, and self. It cements Yeats’s

position as a modern poet who unflinchingly examines both the grandeur and limitations of

the human condition. His fears of his own shortcomings were for naught, however, today, the

name William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) kindles respect for his modern poetry, that is still

regarded as some of the greatest of the era, and in the English literary history altogether.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wildi, Max
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Taylor and Francis
Volume 36
13 August 2008
pp. 246 -253

Skelton, Robin
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Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal
Vol. 1
No. 1
October 1967
pp 7-21

Donoghue, Denis
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New England Review
Vol. 31
No.
2010
pp 131 -144

Maxwell, D.E.S.
“Yeats and Modernism”
The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies
Vol. 3
No.1
June 1997
pp 15-31

Jeffares, A. Norman
“Yeats as Modern Poet”
Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal
Vol. 2
No. 4
Summer 1969
pp 53-58

Wintors, Yvor
“The Poetry of W.B. Yeats"
Twentieth Century Literature
Vol. 6
No. 1
April 1960
pp 3-24