William Butler Yeats Questions and Answers
William Butler Yeats
What is the theme of "The Ballad of Father Gilligan"?
Ballads tell a story in rhyme, and in "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," Yeats's speaker relates the story of how on one particular evening, God showed mercy on both a tired old priest and a man at...
William Butler Yeats
What is a character sketch of Peter Gilligan from the poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan"?
Father Gilligan is a parish priest living and working deep in the Irish countryside. He is a dedicated man, assiduously ministering to his parish, despite the fact that his parishioners keep dying...
William Butler Yeats
What is an analysis of The Land of Heart's Desire by Yeats?
Yeats' The Land of Heart's Desire demonstrates his abiding fascination with Irish folktales and ancient Celtic mythology. He regards the twilight world of fairies, banshees, and ghosts as providing...
William Butler Yeats
What is the Yeats poem "Words" about from the book of poetry The Green Helmet and Other Poems?
Yeats's "Words" comes from his 1910 collection, The Green Helmet and Other Poems, which marks a departure from his earlier works. At the time of writing, Yeats's great love, Maude Gonne, had...
William Butler Yeats
Explain the line "they slowly grew into millions," in "The Ballad of Father Gilligan."
Here's the context of the line you're having trouble with, from "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," by Yeats: He knelt, and leaning on the chairHe prayed and fell asleep;And the moth-hour went from...
William Butler Yeats
Compare and contrast "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" and "Wild Swans of Coole."
"The Wild Swans of Coole" and "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" both celebrate the beauty and peace of nature. Both are simple poems that use imagery—what we can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell—to...
William Butler Yeats
Is there any connection between the real world and the world of the fairies in "The Stolen Child" by Yeats? If yes,...
One of the connections that exists between the real world and the world of the fairies in Yeats's "Stolen Child" is the pain and suffering that makes leaving it quite inviting. The real world and...
William Butler Yeats
What is the theme of Yeats' Stolen Child and in this poem what is being suggested about our world?
William Butler Yeats's "The Stolen Child" is a poem that combines Irish mythology, mystery and romanticism as it pertains to childhood, and in juxtaposition with the modern world. This being said,...
William Butler Yeats
What is the meaning of W. B. Yeats's "The Mask"? What are its themes and its form?
"The Mask" is comprised of alternating lines between 2 speakers. One speaker hides behind a mask, and the other speaker wants her to show her true identity (we'll assume she's a woman for this...
William Butler Yeats
What are W. B. Yeats's poetic techniques and poetic aesthetics?
W. B. (William Butler) Yeats was a prolific twentieth-century Irish poet who wrote a wide range of poetry during his literary career. For example, in “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” Yeats relies on...
William Butler Yeats
Critically analyze the poem "Meru" by William Butler Yeats.
William Butler Yeats's "Meru" is a Shakespearean sonnet, though it is structured and laid out like a Petrarchan sonnet, with a break between the octave and a sestet. The octave makes a general...
William Butler Yeats
What is the theme of "The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner"?
The theme is one of (unwanted and regrettably) inevitable change over time toward old age. Yet another theme runs parallel to that of the changes of time and that theme is concerned with the...
William Butler Yeats
In "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," what is the meaning of the line "And the moth-hour went from the fields"? What do...
In William Butler Yeats's “The Ballad of Father Gilligan,” the old parish priest Peter Gilligan is weary and grieving, for many of his parishioners are dying. It is early evening, the “moth-hour,”...
William Butler Yeats
Critically analyze W. B. Yeats's poem "A Coat."
Yeats' "A Coat" is an autobiographical poem in which Yeats reflects upon his poetry. In the opening line he says that "I made my song a coat." The song he refers to represents his poetry, and the...
William Butler Yeats
What did Father Gilligan find on waking up?
Father Gilligan finds that he has slept through the night and failed in his duty to one of his flock that had sent for him the night before. Here's paragraphs six and seven from "The Ballad of...
William Butler Yeats
Compare and contrast the style of William Butler Yeats in his poems "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" and "The Wild Swans...
Both of Yeats's poems use nature as the vehicle for expressing sentiment, and each poem has its own message. In "The Lake at Innisfree" the speaker projects himself, in great detail, to a bucolic...
William Butler Yeats
What literary devices are employed in the poem "The Battle of Father Gilligan"?
There are several literary devices employed in Yeats's poem, but one theme that he often employs is that of the journey of life. This journey is presented in spiral imagery that explores the human...
William Butler Yeats
What is meant by "he who is wrapped in purple robes" in "The Ballad of Father Gilligan"?
This section of the poem comes in the final stanza, as Father Gilligan kneels to worship his God who has helped him so much by allowing one of his parishioners to die in peace without the need for...
William Butler Yeats
In the poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," why was the priest weary day and night?
Father Gilligan in the ballad by Yeats, "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," is tired because his people are dying off so fast. His job is to go to them, comfort them, and give them last rites when...
William Butler Yeats
Explain "under green sods lay," in W. B. Yeats's poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan."
In the Yeats poem, "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," the fact that half of his flock, half of his parishioners, are lying under green sod is responsible for the priest's exhausted state. The green...
William Butler Yeats
Discuss W. B. Yeats as a modern poet.
There are several ways to discuss W. B. (William Butler) Yeats as a modern poet. There are also a few ways to argue against presenting Yeats as a modern poet. Let’s start with why Yeats might be...
William Butler Yeats
Please explain Yeats' use of myths in "Sailing to Byzantium" and "Byzantium."
Yeats's "Byzantium" was written some years after "Sailing to Byzantium" in an attempt to clarify the earlier poem. While "Sailing to Byzantium" uses allusions (such as to the sages) to give the...
William Butler Yeats
What is the theme of William Butler Yeats's poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan"?
The two central themes of the poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan" are the tremendous stresses a priest must face in Ireland during the Great Potato Famine, and the omnipresent help of a loving...
William Butler Yeats
Why does Father Gilligan ask God to forgive him in the poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan"?
Here's the first four stanzas of "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," by Yeats. They include the details you refer to: The old priest Peter GilliganWas weary night and day;For half his flock were in...
William Butler Yeats
What is Yeats's poem "The Gyres" about? What are its themes? What is its form?
Put simply, "The Gyres" is about an old man on the verge of death, as he reflects on his existence and the destruction of civilization around him. However, the poem is a bit more complicated than...
William Butler Yeats
How is William Butler Yeats's poem "The Stolen Child" structured and what is its style?
William Butler Yeats's poem "The Stolen Child" is structured into four stanzas with a basic ABAB CDCD EFEF and so on rhyme scheme. Each of the first three stanzas ends with an invitation to the...
William Butler Yeats
In the poem "The Cat and the Moon" by Yeats there are similarities (the phases as the cat's eyes change shape and the...
The poem "The Cat and The Moon" was originally written by Yeats as part of a play, first produced in 1917. The first two quatrains of the poem open the play, the second two quatrains appear a short...
William Butler Yeats
Yeats is one of the last Romantics. Discuss.
William Butler Yeats, a much read and loved Irish poet even today, is considered by many as one of the finest poets of the 20th century. His contributions to English poetical traditions are many,...
William Butler Yeats
What role does nature play in Yeats's Poetry? Pay special attention to “Easter 1916,” “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,”...
"I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree." Nature plays an important role in much of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats's work, particularly that of his home country. "The Lake Isle of...
William Butler Yeats
Explain the line "my body spake, not I," in "The Ballad of Father Gilligan."
Here's the context of the line you ask about from "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," by Yeats. The old priest Peter GilliganWas weary night and day;For half his flock were in their beds,Or under...
William Butler Yeats
Could I have a summary of the the play At The Hawk's Well?
The following link summarizes it best. However, in short, it is about an old man who waits for the waters to flow freely in a well that offers water that gives immortality to those who drink it....
William Butler Yeats
Compare William Butler Yeats, W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and Seamus Heaney in the light of their distinct literary...
There is a great deal to say about these four poets, and this question might easily form the topic for a book, rather than an answer of a few hundred words. Yeats and Heaney are both strongly...
William Butler Yeats
Why did Father Gilligan grieve? Why did he repent?
The details you need to answer your question are in the second and third stanzas of the poem. Here's the first four stanzas, to give you the full context, of "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," by...
William Butler Yeats
What are W. B. Yeats's poetic techniques and aesthetic?
W. B. Yeats is a fascinating poet who fills his poems with creative techniques and themes that set him apart stylistically and in terms of content. These stylistic and thematic tendencies also...
William Butler Yeats
What is the central idea of the poem "The Ballad Of Father Gilligan"? Please describe the central idea in 150 to 200...
I think this excellent poem presents us with a priest who is at the end of his tether and absolutely exhausted. It appears that the cause of his intense spritual and physical weariness is the fact...
William Butler Yeats
Why is the Fairy realm more alluring than the fictitious world in "The Stolen Child"? It is not proven that the fairy...
The fairies believe that their world is more alluring than the child's world because it spares him the loss that inevitably awaits. There is nothing conclusively proven about which world is better....
William Butler Yeats
What are some examples of the use of humor in the stage adaptation of Yeats's The Pot of Broth?
Yeats's play, The Pot of Broth, (which he wrote was composed with the help of Lady Gregory) is a retelling of the old European folk tale often known as "stone soup." There are also Chinese and...
William Butler Yeats
Can you please analyse W.B. Yeat's poem "Down By The Salley Gardens"?
Yeats published "Down By The Salley Gardens," a poem based on an Irish folk song, in a collection called Crossways in 1890. Although some readers have tried to locate the "Salley" gardens, the...
William Butler Yeats
Compare and contrast Yeats's "Leda and the Swan" and "The Wild Swans at Coole."
Apart from their both dealing with swans, in my view these two poems on first reading have little in common. "Leda and the Swan" is a sonnet based on the incident in Greek mythology in which Zeus...
William Butler Yeats
Please explain "for half his flock were in their beds," in W.B.Yeats' poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan."
What is referred to in this poem as the "flock" is the people who lived in Father Gilligan's area. They are the people for whom he, as a priest, is responsible. The idea is that he is their...
William Butler Yeats
Justify the title of W.B.Yeats' poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan."
A traditional folk ballad is usually told in a direct or dramatic manner with a specific form: quatrains (four-line stanzas) the lines alternate between four stresses and three stresses the second...
William Butler Yeats
Could I have a summary of the play "The Green Helmet"?
"The Green Helmet" by William Butler Yeats is not a play, but a collection of poetry. It was written after his collection "In the Seven Woods", and is a continuation of that...
William Butler Yeats
What is the importance of purple robes in "The Ballad of Father Gilligan" by Yeats?
In this poem, Yeats describes a priest who is exhausted because his parishioners "die and die," and thus he has "no rest, nor joy, nor peace." The priest falls asleep one night after being called...
William Butler Yeats
What is W. B. Yeats's "The Travail of Passion" about?
This short poem by Yeats draws on the story of the crucifixion of Christ and the act of Mary Magdalene in using her hair and perfume to wash the feet of Jesus. These events capture the sense of...
William Butler Yeats
I'm writing a research paper about William Butler Yeats. In the paper, I talk about his three poems "A Prayer for My...
Yeats is one of my favorite poets! Does your assignment allow you to choose any poems? I am assuming you have to tailor your thesis statement to discuss these three works. I think you could...
William Butler Yeats
What are the romantic elements in W B Yeats' poetry? Please give some descriptions of all the points of the answer.
There are many romantic elements in the poetry of W.B. Yeats - many of this poet's most beautiful and lyrical poems were written early on in his career. a good one to look at is "The Lake Isle Of...
William Butler Yeats
What was the epidemic described which made the priest so weary in the poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan?" It is...
To my understanding, the many people who are dying in the village described in "The Ballad of Father Gilligan" are victims of the Great Potato Famine, or, at least, the lingering effects of that...
William Butler Yeats
I need to write an essay comparing two of the following poems by W.B. Yeats in regards to context, themes, and so on...
Yeats's work moves in two directions, in a way. Much of what he says in his poetry is very Romantic. "The Wild Swans at Coole" represents this well. In the poem, he paints a vivid nature scene and...
William Butler Yeats
What are the major themes of the poem "Broken Dreams," by W. B Yeats, and what are the poem's meanings?
In his poem “Broken Dreams,” W. B. Yeats deals with such standard poetic topics as desire, change, memories, the afterlife, the passing of time, and a woman’s beauty. Yet of course, like all...
William Butler Yeats
Explain the significance of the term "moth-hour" in W. B. Yeats's poem "The Ballad of Father Gilligan."
In most areas of the world, there are moths. A lot of the moths that people see come out around early evening. So when the poor man sends for Father Gilligan, it is early evening. Most of the...
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