William Butler Yeats The Circus Animals Desertion Athena

William Butler Yeats’ The Circus Animals’ Desertion Athena Dai, Max Gitelman, Jackie O’Hara, Meghana Sastri Happy second day of Chanukah

Dominant Effect: In the poem, "The Circus Animals' Desertion, ” William Butler Yeats establishes a cynical tone through his imagery while alluding to his previous works to emphasize his acceptance of the futile quest of poetic fulfillment. 3

Historical Context/Allusions

Time Period ❖ The Circus Animals’ Desertion was published in 1937 -1938, only a year or two before he died. ➢ Fun fact: The body in Yeats’ grave might actually be someone else. ❖ Similar to “The Second Coming”, that was published during the gap between wartime as well, as well as “A Coat”, which admonishes his previous writing style. ➢ Themes found in The Second Coming will be reflected in themes in The Circus Animals’ Desertion ➢ Like how The Second Coming was a transition from romantic to modernism, this could be seen as a transition from modernism to postmodernism ■ 5 Intertextuality, metafiction, pastiche

(Historical) Allusions - Summary ❖ All the historical allusions in this work are to Yeats’ previous works. ❖ His tone is a critical one, but also dismissive; the narrator turns to recycling old poems because he couldn’t think of anything else to write. ➢ “I sought a theme and sought for it in vain/I sought it daily for six weeks or so/Maybe at last being but a broken man” (Yeats 1 -2) ➢ “What can I but enumerate old themes” (Yeats 9) ■ Futility in creating new work. ❖ Each allusion is a snapshot of earlier themes that Yeats often wrote about. 6

“That sea-rider Oisin” ❖ Yeats wrote a poem called “The Wanderings of Oisin” in 1889 ➢ The fable itself is about an Irish hero named Oisin who was regarded as a legendary poet, and attributed as one of the people who converted Ireland to Christianity. ➢ The fable details his three hundred year old relationship with a fairy named Niamh. ❖ Through the narrator’s use of words like “vain”, “embittered heart”, and dismissive tone (“what cared I”), the narrator dismisses the grandeur of the story. ➢ Instead he was “starved for the bosom of his fairy bride”. 7

The Countess Cathleen ❖ A play that Yeats wrote in 1899. ❖ The play was set in the Irish famine, where a countess sells her soul to the devil to feed her tenants; despite the deal, she goes to heaven because her deed was altruistic. ❖ It was dedicated to Maude Gonne, who was also the first woman to play the Countess. ❖ There is no derision towards the Countess like there was with Oisin, but the story is described to be a dream that “had all my thought and love”, and thus inconsequential. ➢ 8 The diction is even dreamlike, seen in the long, drawn out vowels.

Cuchulain ❖ An allusion to another one of Yeats's poems, called “The Death of Cuchulain” (later renamed “Cuchulain’s Fight With the Sea” ❖ This play was then based on the Irish fable Aided Óenfhir Aífe/The Death of Aífe's Only Son. ➢ Cuchulain, the Fool, and the Blind Man are all characters within the play ❖ The Narrator confesses that the “players and painted stage took all my love/and not those things that they were emblems of” (Yeats 31 -32). ➢ The actual themes didn’t matter; only the materialistics 9 ■ “Cuchulain fought the ungovernable sea” ■ “The Fool and Blind Man stole the bread”

Discussion Question 1: How do the three works that Yeats alludes to reflect in “The Circus Animals’ Desertion”? What’s different? What’s the same/related? Anything specific he’s commenting on? 10

Fun Fact ❖ William Butler Yeats and his cultist rival, Aleister Crowley, had what was essentially a “wizard duel” with each other when Crowley was ejected from the Golden Dawn ➢ They supposedly cursed each other with vampires and mummies ➢ They also essentially put the event in diary form, in a book called “The Battle of Blythe Road: A Golden Dawn Affair” ➢ Yeats also spartan kicked Crowley down the stairs of the Golden Dawn building 11

Structure

Diction Section 1 ❖ “I sought a theme and sought for it in vain” (I. 1) ➢ Yeats uses past tense to express that the speaker’s idealism has degraded ➢ Indicates his maturity through the speakers lofty and pessimistic tone. ➢ Utilizes double entendre to enhance his critique with less obvious allusions ■ Themes, or Themata were districts in byzantine, an allusion to his romantic poem “Sailing to Byzantium. ” ❖ Those stilted boys, that burnished chariot” (I. 7) ➢ Yeats uses formal diction to establish a lofty depiction of events ➢ His choice of words convey a deep cynicism of youth Indicating his rejection of 13

Diction Section 2 ❖ “Themes of the embittered heart” (II. 13) ➢ Yeats repeats “theme” to promote a juxtaposition through his double entendre. ➢ Use of “embittered” portrays the increasingly cynical tone of the speaker throughout the poem. ❖ “Character isolated by a deed” (II. 29) ➢ Yeats intentionally does not specify “character” as cuchulain to insinuate ambiguity ■ Breaks the iambic rhythm as only that word is dactylic ■ Ironic as character is structurally isolated from the rest of the stanza ➢ The emphasis of this phrase draws Yeats fear of his romantic legacy 14

Diction Section 3 ❖ “Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut” (III. 35) ➢ Significantly less lofty and formal than language in his other sections ➢ derogatory terms punctate the speaker’s bitter, resentful tone ➢ Juxtaposes the connotation of old by the significance of number three ❖ “In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart” (III. 37) ➢ Yeats uses powerful adjectives to enhance his imagery ➢ Glorifies the speakers cynicism by depicting his fondness of for these ignoble terms by placing them within his heart. 15

Meter ❖ Written in Ottava Rima: Italian form of writing that uses iambic pentameter in an 8 line stanza, has a rhyme pattern of abababcc ❖ Used for epic poems, but there’s irony in using it for this poem particular poem ❖ ottava rima also allows for six lines to discuss the problems, and the last two lines create the conclusion in the last stanza ❖ occasionally breaks meter in stanzas 1 and 2 ➢ line 8, end of stanza 1: “Lion and woman and the lord knows what” ➢ line 21 “I thought my dear must her own soul destroy” ➢ line 31 “Players and painted stage took all my love” ■ 16 places emphasis on his frustration about not being able to write authentically

Meter (cont. ) ❖ There’s slant rhyme in sections 2 and 3 ➢ gives a sense of unneasiness and make the realize that all the characters and allusions he’s talking about are no longer important, which signifies his shift into postmodernism ❖ Characteristics of postmodernism include: self-awareness, pastiche, intertextuality, themes of frustration, and prevalent use of irony. ➢ Ironic because Yeats wrote an insightful poem about not being able to write poetry ➢ Themes of frustration could also relate to the impending doom of World War II 17

Repetition Yeats repeats the word vain in the first Yeats also repeats the word old in Section 3: stanza of section 2: “Vain gaiety, vain battle, “Old kettles. Old bottles, and a broken can, / vain repose” (line 12) Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut ❖ Yeats emphasizes how it was vain to write about the tale of Oisin because he dismissed its true meaning and wrote it because of his idealistic perceptions 18 / Who keeps the till. ” (lines 36 -37) ❖ Emphasizes how old age has caught up to him

Another Fun Fact ❖ Even though Maude Gonne and Yeats never technically married, they actually had two “mystical marriages” ❖ Essentially they would say their souls were married ❖ Maude Gonne didn’t actually enjoy any physical relationships. 19

Shifts In each stanza, Yeats portrays doubt through his structural insertion of dangling modifiers: ❖ line 4: “I must be satisfied with my heart, although” ❖ line 13: ”Themes of the embittered heart, or so it seems” ❖ line 21: “I thought my dear must her own soul destroy” ❖ lines 23 -24: “And this brought forth a dream and soon enough / This dream itself had all my thought and love” ➢ Here in particular, he acknowledges that the play of Cuchulain was written because he idealized the idea of Cathleen selling her soul to the devil, not what the play actually represented 20

Discussion Question 2: What distinct changes in style, structure, or technique are there compared to his past work? 21

Motifs and Symbols

Circus Animals & Presentation ❖ The titular motif of ‘Circus animals’ ➢ Yeats, as a ringmaster, versus his show/animals. ➢ Yeats is himself deserting his circus animals. ❖ “Players and the painted stage took all my love. ” (31) ➢ Symbolizes showmanship ❖ “I, starved for the bosom of his fairy bride. ” (16) ➢ “it was the dream itself enchanted me” (27) ❖ Reflection through a Postmodernist lense 24

Numbers ❖ “Through three enchanted islands” (II. xii) ➢ The number three is often associated with the holy trinity, a symbol for religion, faith, and even perfection. ■ This is represented in irish culture by the shamrock, and also the trinity knot or triquetra ❖ “Vain gaiety, vain battle, vain repose” (II. xii) ➢ Three is often broken up to indicate increments of a sequence ■ such as (rising action, resolution), (birth, life, death), or (past, present, future) ■ This symbolizes to the shifts in Yeats poems and his life Romantic, modern, postmodern ❖ “Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut” (III. xxxvii). ➢ The connotation of the repeated words contrasts the symbolism of divinity ❖ Structurally, there are three sections 25

Age ❖ Yeats expresses maturity throughout his previous works and the myths they were based ➢ “Winter and summer till old age began” (5) ❖ He gains hindsight as he grows older ➢ “What can I but enumerate old themes. . . That might adorn old songs” (9, 14) ❖ He calls things old repeatedly in order to imply uselessness, or redundancy. ➢ “Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can, / old iron, old bones old rags” (36 -37) ❖ Contradicts and discredits themes from previous works ➢ “Leda and The Swan” 26

Love, hearts, and dreams ❖ The motif of love, hearts, and dreams signifies an idealistic perception of life, but in reality the allusions came from “A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street” and the speaker ignored their true meaning. ❖ Life doesn’t always consist of love, hearts, and dreams, and this further emphasizes selfawareness and the shift to postmodernism Claddagh ring is a celtic symbol for love, loyalty 27

Discussion Question 3: Why is it called The Circus Animals’ Desertion? What are the circus animals? Why are they mentioned? 28

Discussion Question 4: How does age seem to influence the ways in which Yeats writes throughout the poems that we’ve looked at so far? Do you think that it influenced him before he began to use it as a major theme? 29

Discussion Question: 5 Who do you think is the speaker? How does this affect your interpretation? 31

EXIT SLIP!!! Reflect on your past work, beliefs, or actions and write down how you feel about them now 32

Want big impact? Use big image. 33

Works Cited Jameson, Fredric. 'Postmodernism and Consumer Society', in Hal Foster (ed. ) Postmodern Culture. London: Pluto, 1985, pp. 112 -115. Jones, Josh. “Aleister Crowley & William Butler Yeats Get into an Occult Battle, Pitting White Magic Against Black Magic (1900). ” Open Culture, LLC, 10 Oct. 2016, www. openculture. com/2016/10/aleister-crowley-william-butler-yeats-get-into-an-occult-battle. html. “WB Yeats: Fresh Doubt That Sligo Grave Contains Poet's Remains. ” BBC News, BBC, 18 July 2015, www. bbc. com/news/world-europe-33579531. Yeats, William Butler. “Cuchulain's Fight With the Sea. ” California State University, Northridge, California State University, www. csun. edu/~hceng 029/yeatspoems/Cuchulains. Fight. Yeats, William Butler. “The Countess Cathleen. ” The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Countess Cathleen, 26 Mar. 2009, www. gutenberg. org/files/5167 -h/5167 -h. htm. Yeats, William Butler. “The Wanderings of Oisin. ” California State University, Northridge, California State University, www. csun. edu/~hceng 029/yeatspoems/Wanderings. Of. Oi. Lewis, Barry. Postmodernism and Literature // The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism. NY: Routledge, 2002.