WB-YEATS LESSON

​William Butler Yeats

​Listen

​Open the link on the next page and read the article. There will be questions that follow it.

William Butler Yeats - Poems, Books & Facts

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Multiple Choice

Which statement below is true and supported from the website article (William Butler Yeats - Poems, Books & Facts (biography.com)?

• ^{William Butler Yeats was one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.}

• _{William Butler Yeats is one of America’s greatest and most original poets of all time.}

• _{He is best known for her eccentric personality and her frequent themes of death}

• ^{Yeats was a poet and critic, who did more than any other single figure to advance a “modern” movement in English and American literature}

Multiple Choice

Where was William Butler Yeats born?

• Dublin, Ireland

• Massachusetts, USA

• Madrid, Spain

• London, England

Multiple Choice

What is the relationship between Yeats and Maud Gonne?

• She was his muse and Yeats even proposed to her. But, she always declined.

• She was a fellow student at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin.

• She was a fellow poet.

• Maud Gonne was Yeats' supervisor in school

Multiple Choice

What was NOT an interest of Yeats?

• Occult, mysticism

• Political Atmosphere in Ireland

• Poetry

• Conformity

William Butler Yeats is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. He belonged to the Protestant, Anglo-Irish minority that had controlled the economic, political, social, and cultural life of Ireland since at least the end of the 17th century. Most members of this minority considered themselves English people who happened to have been born in Ireland, but Yeats staunchly affirmed his Irish nationality. Although he lived in London for 14 years of his childhood (and kept a permanent home there during the first half of his adult life), Yeats maintained his cultural roots, featuring Irish legends and heroes in many of his poems and plays. He was equally firm in adhering to his self-image as an artist. This conviction led many to accuse him of elitism, but it also unquestionably contributed to his greatness.

As fellow poet W.H. Auden noted in a 1948 Kenyon Review essay entitled “Yeats as an Example,” Yeats accepted the modern necessity of having to make a lonely and deliberate “choice of the principles and presuppositions in terms of which [made] sense of his experience.” Auden assigned Yeats the high praise of having written “some of the most beautiful poetry” of modern times. Perhaps no other poet stood to represent a people and country as poignantly as Yeats, both during and after his life, and his poetry is widely read today across the English-speaking world.

Excerpt:
William Butler Yeats | Poetry Foundation

​Directions

Multiple Choice

After reading the website article and now the excerpt, what can be inferred about Yeats?

• He is passionate about his Irish nationality.

• He is a traveler.

• Yeats was very particular about religion

• Yeats always wanted to be the best

Multiple Choice

Yeats was a strong advocate for Irish independence during his time and Irish nationalism. How did he reflect this in his literary texts?

• By including Irish heroes and legends in his poems and plays.

• By including real-life Irish politicians in his works of fiction.

• Yeats often read to children in Irish schools.

• By including American sports heroes in his works of fiction.

Multiple Choice

As cited in the excerpt, which poet describes Yeats as [having], "“some of the most beautiful poetry”?

• Walt Whitman

• WH Auden

• Emily Dickinson

• William Shakespeare

​When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Multiple Choice

What type of meter is used in the first line of "When You are Old," By William Butler Yeats?

L1: When you are old and grey and full of sleep

• Iambic Diameter

• Iambic Pentameter

• Monometer

• Iambic Hexameter

Multiple Choice

What is the setting of "When You are Old"?

• Campsite

• Graveyard

• Speaker's mind

• Yard or meadow

• Country road

​If you got the last question wrong, have a listen!

Multiple Choice

It is clear that the speaker is addressing this to or focused on a specific person. He even asked them to, "take down this book." Which choice below best explains the speaker's intention for doing this?

• He is referring to the book that this poem itself will someday be in. He wants the poem to remind him or her of something.

• He is referring to the poem itself will someday be in. He wants the poem to remind an ex-partner of what they lost.

• The poem itself is an inner monologue. The speaker really does not know what to do.

Multiple Choice

In the last stanza it states, "And bending down beside the glowing bars." What is glowing bars most likely a metaphor or description for?

• Fire

• Moon

• Stars

• Reflection on the water

Reorder

Reorder the following to replicate a line from the poem "When You are Old."

• But one

• man

• loved the

• pilgrim soul

• in you

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

​Have a listen

Labelling

Read the poem titled The Fish and then label the rhyme scheme for the first two lines and the last two lines.

Drag labels to their correct position on the image

F

E

B

D

C

A

​Reciting

Multiple Choice

Yeats did a lot in his life. Which fact about Yeats below is best supported by this poem?

• Yeats was a part of the theater business, and worked on plays.

• Yeats often traveled between England and Ireland.

• Yeats was heartbroken by his failed proposal to Maude Gonne

• Yeats never recovered from the death of his childhood pet.

Open Ended

The lesson is almost over. Before ending, please write 2-3 facts that you can recall about William Butler Yeats.

DO NOT WRITE " HE WAS A POET"