William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

The Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) is arguably the greatest poet of the 20th century. With poetic backgrounds in 19th-century Romanticism, his work evolved into a much harder, tougher, and more poignant and beautiful mode that kept with aesthetic values of the 20th century.

This course will examine a large selection of Yeats's poetry, from the youthful, romantic late 19^th-century poems to the magnificent works of the 1920s and 1930s that place him in the forefront of world poetry. Along the way, we will look at the relevant biographical background and political, social, and cultural events taking place at the time in Ireland.

You may take this course as part of the following program:

What will I learn?

In addition to the selected poems listed below, we will also discuss the following:

• Yeats’ relevant biographical background
• Relevant political, social, and cultural events at that time in Ireland

How will I learn?

• Lectures
• Discussion (may vary from class to class)
• Papers (applicable only to certificate students)

Who should take this course?

This course is for anyone who is interested in learning more about in learning more William Butler Yeats, his life and poetry.

How will I be evaluated?

(For certificate students only)

Your instructor will evaluate you based on an essay you will complete at the end of the course. You will receive a grade of “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory.”

Textbooks and learning materials

Reading materials will be available at the SFU Vancouver Belzberg Library. Some course materials may be available online.

You will find most of the following poems in any edition of Yeats’ Selected Poems and all of them in his Collected Poems.  Ideally, you will read over the poems before the class, then again after it.

Week 1:

Crossways
“The Indian Upon God”
“The Stolen Child”
“Down by the Salley Gardens”

The Rose
“To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time”
“The Lake Isle of Innisfree”
“When You are Old”
“Who Goes with Fergus”
“The Man who Dreamed of Faeryland”
The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner”

The Wind Among the Reeds
“The Song of Wandering Aengus”
“The Cap and Bells”
“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”

In the Seven Woods
“In the Seven Woods”
“The Folly of Being Comforted”
“Adam’s Curse”

Week 2:

The Green Helmet
“No Second Troy”
“Reconciliation”
“The Fascination of What’s Difficult”
“A Drinking Song”
“On Hearing that the Students of our New University …”
“To a Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise …”
“The Mask”
“Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation”
“At Galway Races”
“All Things Can Tempt Me”

Responsibilities
“Pardon, Old Fathers …”
“To a Wealthy Man Who Promised …”
“September 1913”
“To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing”
“Paudeen”
“To a Shade”
“On Those That Hated ‘The Playboy of the Western World,’ 1907”
“The Witch”
“Friends”
“The Cold Heaven”
“The Magi”
“The Dolls”
“A Coat”
“While I, From That Reed-Throated Whisperer”

Week 3:

The Wild Swans at Coole
“The Wild Swans at Coole”
“In Memory of Major Robert Gregory”
“An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”
“The Scholars”
“On Being Asked for a War Poem”
“Upon a Dying Lady”
“Ego Dominus Tuus”

Michael Robartes and the Dancer
“Michael Robartes and the Dancer”
“Solomon and the Witch”
“Easter 1916”
“The Second Coming”
“A Prayer for my Daughter”
“To be Carved on a Stone at Thoor Ballylee”

Week 4:

The Tower
“Sailing to Byzantium”
“The Tower”
“Meditations in Time of Civil War”
“Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen”
“Leda and the Swan”
“Among School Children”
“All Souls’ Night”

Week 5:

The Winding Stair
“In Memory of Eva Gore Booth and Con Markiewicz”
“Death”
“A Dialogue of Self and Soul”
“Coole Park, 1929”
“Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931”
“Byzantium”
“Crazy Jane and the Bishop”
“Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop”
“After Long Silence”

A Full Moon in March
“A Prayer for Old Age”
“Ribh at the Tomb of Baile and Aillinn”
“Meru”

Week 6:

Last Poems
“The Gyres”
“Lapis Lazuli”
“Imitated from the Japanese”
“An Acre of Grass”
“Beautiful Lofty Things”
“The Great Day”
“Parnell”
“The Spur”
“The Municipal Gallery Revisited”
“Long-Legged Fly”
“Why Should Not Old Men be Mad?”
“The Circus Animals’ Desertion”
“Politics”
“Under Ben Bulben"