The development of Yeats poetry has been explained by different articles. That is the work of Ben Merre and the works of Wenthe William, Finneran Richard and McKinsey. The authors have different views on how the Yeats poetry has evolved. Yeats poetry has evolved through years because of several reasons. Some of the yeasts work has evolved due to economic factors and change in culture. According to Finneran article yeasts work has evolved because of financial reasons and this has changed most of the poems (Richard 1998). The main themes in the tower include old age and attendant problem. The tower also shows the relationship between nature and spiritual. Finneran explains the changes made on most of Yeats collected poems. The changes to the poems have made Yeats work change as he has incorporated new concepts that are useful in his work and removed other concepts that are not useful in poetry(Richard 1998).
The changes are reflected in most of the revised editions. Yeats has made changes to punctuation in most of the poems, but he has not changed lines in the poems. He has also made changes on the collection of poems in most of the books. Most of his books have incorporated both short poems and long poems together, but he has changed the arrangement of the poems in his books. He has moved the shadowy waters and other four poems into different sections of the collected poems(Richard 1998). Yeats has moved long poems into a different section so as to make the book attractive to his buyers. This shows the changes evidenced in Yeasts arrangement of poems are due to financial benefits. The concept of rearranging the poems in most of the books is suggested by his publishers Macmillan(Richard 1998).
Yeats has agreed with the concept since the arrangement has more financial benefits than the prior arrangement. Yeats agreed to put long poems at the end of the book and the short poems at the beginning of the book(Richard 1998). He has named the long poem as narrative or dramatic poetry and the short poems as lyrical poems. The arrangement has brought tremendous change to yeasts poems. Yeats changed the structure of the poem tower by adding a fourth stanza to two songs from the play. He has also deleted the first 17 lines from other works like the hero(Richard 1998). The author has also incorporated fragments in other works by combining a four line lyric with other six lines from an introduction to one of his play. The addition of lines into the poems has changed the main idea in the poems as it has shifted from myth to human(Richard 1998).
The use of additional lines, fragments and deletion of lines has made the structure of the poems change as the new poems have a different structure from the original poems. The evolution of Yeats poems is also as a result of tradition and cultural changes. This is because the author has incorporated new tradition in his work.The design of Yeats poems incorporates Ireland culture but not Greece culture alone. This has made the poems change in order to incorporate poetry devices from Ireland culture. Yeats has included nationalistic into several poems, and drama thus making his work be different from the original works (Yeats & Finneran 2004). Yeats has developed Hellenic in the poems as a result of cultural changes and nationalism.
For example the wandering of Oisin is a lyric developed through cultural reconstruction. According to McKinsey article,Yeats has used Homeric motif in his work to describe his lyric poetry. For example Yeats has used the Homeric motif concept in his poem No second troy. Thus, most of the Yeats poems have evolved due to his nationalism and cultural reconstruction where by he has incorporated different culture in his new work making the work different from the original work( Martin 2002).His original work contains Greece culture but the new work includes Ireland culture. He has used poetry concepts that are different from the original poetry devices in his work. Another factor that has contributed to evolution of Yeats poems is revision. Yeats has made a revision to most of his poems. He has made changes to the poem the sorrow of love and other revisions. He has changed the first line. The changes to the line have made the content of the line be different from the title of the poem. This change has made the poem have a different meaning to the reader ( Martin 2002). The sorrow of love is an example of works that Yeats has revised.
The revision made by Yeats on his work has forced people to be concerned with his lyric poems. That is the relationship of the lyric poems to history. Yeats has revised the poem the scholars(David 2008). The readers can only understand the poem as a product of Yeats revision. The scholar was first written in 1915 and revised in 1929. The revision of lyric poem has made most of the poems change significantly in terms of the content, the time and the structure of the poems(David 2008).The revision has made Yeats poetry evolve. The poets have a different view on Yeats work as the work has changed greatly because of revision. This is because most people do not see the importance of the revision and this makes it difficulty to analyze the content critically. Thus, according to Ben Merre article on vision and revision Yeasts works has evolved due to the revision he has made to his work (David 2008). According to William Wenthe modern poems incorporate imagination in the content. This help’s the reader and the poet to understand the changes in poetry (Wenthe 1997). Yeast has used the same concept to develop his poems. He has developed a different genre from other authors. Yeats has incorporated hard toil of verification as a theme in most of his first poems. The theme has helped Yeats to develop his work. In conclusion the evolution of Yeats poetry is as a result of nationalism, Cultural changes, financial needs and changes in structure of poems, revision and theory of verification(David 2008).
Reference
David,M.The brawling of a sparrow in the eaves: vision and revision in W. B. Yeats.
Journal of Modern Literature.2008
Martin,M.Classicism and Colonial Retrenchment in W. B Yeats’s ‘No Second Troy.twentethy century literature.2002
Richard,F. From Things Becoming to the Thing Become : the Construction of W.B Yeat’s ‘The Tower”. South Atlantic Modern Language Association.1998
Wenthe,J .It Will Be a Hard Toil’: Yeats’s Theory of Versification. Journal of Modern Literature, XXI.Foundation for modern literature.1997
Yeats,W.Finneran,R.The tower: a facsimile.Scribner.2004
