YEATS REVIEW
ALLARI
AP ENGLISH
As before, these are some study guides and questions you might think about. You do NOT have to write answers to all of them; they're just to get you oriented for our discussion of Yeats. Answer odds or evens from each section for class—use textual references as needed—you are an Aper!
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree," (2368); "Who Goes with Fergus?" (2369):
1. What is this world like that Yeats seems to want to escape to?
2. How does this fairy world relate to Ireland at the turn of the century?
"September 1913," (2374); "Easter 1916," (2380);
What is Yeats' attitude towards the Irish nationalists in the first poem?
3. How does that attitude change in the second poem?
4. What does "motley" mean?
5. What does Yeats mean by "a terrible beauty"? Why would he choose this oxymoron?
"The Wild Swans at Coole," (2376);
6. How many swans are there? Why is it significant that this is an odd number?
7. What do the swans mean to Yeats?
8. How has he changed over the years?
9. How does he relate his own changes to the swans?
"The Second Coming" (2382);
10. What is a gyre? What is the significance of its cone shape?
11. What's the point about the falcon and the falconer?
12. What does the rough beast signify?
13. What does this mean for the future?
"Sailing to Byzantium," (2385); "Byzantium," (2391)
14. Why does Yeats choose Byzantium as the location for these poems?
15. What does the golden bird symbolize?
16. What does the second poem add to the first? See the footnotes on this in your text.
17. What is this purifying fire?
18. What does the dolphin represent?