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ENG45C, Guide/Color Key: - Coggle Diagram
ENG45C
Transition
These are texts that can be read as reactions or following both sides of tradition and modernity.
Historical Response
WWI & WWII
"Easter, 1916" by W.B Yeats
Historical context: was written in response to the Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland that occurred in 1916 when Irish Nationalist led an uprising against British rule of Ireland The poem is a mix of critique of the rebellion and the extremes of politics as well as the speaker's admiration towards the bravery and dedication of those who rebelled. The contest between critique of politics and acknowledgment of the rebels fight and the act of rebellion itself (alongside it's consequence: death) shows the transition between tradition and modernity as Ireland does gain it's freedom, however rebellion or going against the grain led to the change
Tradition
Although many of the texts converse in both tradition and modernity, these texts focus more on tradition whether through the perspective of a character/narrator, it's themes, images, time and/or place, or the plot itself.
Form
"The Lake of Innisfree" by W.B Yeats
W.B Yeats
Through the quatrain and three stanzas follows a traditional narrative style of beginning, middle, and end:
Stanza 1: Describes his plan to return to nature
" I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there" (W.B Yeats Lines 1-2)
Stanza 2: Internal feelings of the speaker who anticipates feeling at peace once they go to Innisfree
" And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow..." (Line 5)
Stanza 3: Resolution falls and speaker reveals yearning for they cannot go to Innisfree
" While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core." (Lines 11-12)
Quatrain form: a poetic form where each stanza must consist of four lines. This form can be traced all the way back to Ancient Greece and Rome
This is a form that has a rule to be followed, this connects to tradition as this specific requirement has to be met for the poem to be considered a quatrain
"Sailing to Byzantium" by W.B Yeats
Follows multiple traditional formal features of poetry including: being written in ottava rima (Italian poetic form), 8-line stanzas with ABABABCC rhyme scheme, and iambic pentameter
Ottava Rima is a traditional poetic form originating from the 13th/14th century in Italy which became a standard use for heroic poetry/Epics
The poem, in this traditional form used for heroic poetry also follows a narrative journey like that of a hero of an old man coming to terms with his morality
Definition of term:
"A belief, statement, custom, etc., handed down by non-written means (esp. word of mouth, or practice) from generation to generation; such beliefs, etc., considered collectively"- Oxford English Dictionary
Mythology/Religious Imagery
"The Second Coming" by W.B Yeats
The "Second Coming" refers to the Christian idea/prophecy of the return of Jesus on Earth at the end of time
" Mere anarchy is loosened upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosened and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned..."
(lines 4-6)
Uses apocalyptic imagery of the end such as in the religious imagery of Jesus returning at the end of the world/time as known by humanity
Historical context: was written in 1919 after WWI connecting the decay of morality and the end of society in the Christian prophecy to post-war reaction to the crumbling of old order and society as known before a war involving mass killing, weaponry, and most countries (never seen before like an apocalypse) However it also changes the imagery of the savior to a beast instead:
"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" (lines 21-22) reflecting the post-war disillusionment instead of hope like the original religious belief of being saved and taken to heaven
Time: The Past
"Tradition and the Individual Talent" by T.S Eliot
Discusses what being traditional means and what "following tradition" means in poetry
"“[Tradition] cannot be inherited, and if you want
it you must obtain it by great labour. It involves,
in the first place, the historical sense...[which]
involves a perception, not only of the pastness of
the past, but of its presence” (2171)
"The Sound and The Fury"
by William Faulkner
Modernity
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