Billy Gardner
1 March 2011
Essay 1
It’s all in There
“Under Ben Bulben” comes to be the culmination of William Butler Yeats’ career in poetry. The poem conjures up a final farewell by the poet in a didactic artifice devoted to uncanny artistic beauty. Urging escapism[J1] through art as a means to immortality, “Under Ben Bulben” invites all artists to service humanity and communicate an artistically coalesced vision of spiritual reality.
The first movement of “Under Ben Bulben” professes that the reader should devote allegiance to two symbols that cast a shadow over the rest of the poem. The Witch of Atlas is described as a symbol of wisdom and beauty amongst the people. She has the ability to see the reality of things as she journeys; the implications become that the witch sees the shadows of human life on the water she is traveling down. This professes a theme throughout the poem of the importance of understanding the human condition, in this case as an existence of strife. The reader must buy-in to the notion that the only way to ‘journey in the calm depths’ is to come to the realization of the first symbol, The Witch of Atlas. The second symbols are the women horsemen that ride on the mountain of Ben Bulben. The description encapsulates an ideal being,
“Complexion and form prove superhuman,
That pale, long-visaged company
That airs an immortality
Completeness of their passions won” (Yeats 6-9).
These women come to be the ambassadors of humanity in that they are whole by their “passions won.” The actions and influence they have on their surroundings allow them to become immortal. The imagery harps again on the human condition of strife. The only way to come out of this unacceptable condition would be through “passions won”; a deserved act or work with immortal influence.[BJ2] Both symbols permeate the conviction throughout the poem to enlighten humanity by realization, in order to triumph, and gain spiritual reality. The rest of the poem becomes overshadowed by humanity’sies interpretation of these two symbols.
The poem in its second movement affirms that this spiritual reality can be the only true fate of humanity. Man goes through an endless cycle of reincarnation, where, “that of race and that of soul” (Yeats 15) describe the illusion of death in the “human mind.” These men become buried and the human mind places them as gone, but the reality is they are a part of this eternal cycle of spirituality through the soul and race. The third movement begins with a prayer calling for war and violence, where mankind would have the ability to prove himself through heroic actions. Interjection in the poem with a violent and ferocious prayer describe the inclining for all men “even the wisest man grow tense” (Yeats 33) to produce a meaning for their lives through this undertaking of heroic artistry. Man must abide, “Before he can accomplish fate/ Know his work or choose his mate” (Yeats 35-36). The term “accomplish fate” provides[J3] this is the only destiny of man and he will never know himself “his work” or be able to love and multiply “choose his mate” unless he submits to this poetic undertaking of heroic actions. The poem at this point represents a broad view to all mankind. The call is for a heroic act but the view begins to narrow as the movements continue.
The poem now narrows its calling for this poetic insight to artists in general, poets, sculptors and painters. These artists are to gain this insight through the great works of the past. These works range from Egyptian mathematical thought of mathematics to Michelangelo’s Adam and Eve, “globe-trotting madam (Yeats 48),” describing the influence this art has upon the entire world. These artists must again submit themselves these spiritual or poetic vision and now to the influence of the past. There is no other fate unless these conditions are met. Along with the calling to artists in this movement, a mysterious and elusive existence recurs. There is a recognition that needs to be proven to a higher power at the beginning of the movement, “Bring the soul of man to God,”(Yeats 40) implies an acknowledgement by God through this poeticism. Another example comes at the end of the movement “Proof that there’s a purpose set/ Before the secret working mind/ Profane perfection of mankind” (Yeats 50-52). This recurrence of “the human mind” or in this case “the secret working mind” generates this hopeful existence of this calling to poetical insight to be alive. It makes a calling through its own example and buries itself amongst a movement in comparison to other great human works of art. Planting the human mind as an existence brings about the monumental realization that “the mind” must be an active component to the poem in order to understand its meaning. This was established earlier on by the calling for realization, like that of the Witch of Atlas. The reader must[BJ4] submit to the plans devised by the poem in order for the human mind to understand it, and furthermore, gain recognition by the higher power described in the fourth movement.
The poem further narrows its gaze and calls for the “Irish poets” to gain this artistic insight. This movement presents superb patriotic language, “ Cast your mind on other days/ That we in coming days may be/ Still the indomitable Irishry”(Yeats 82-83). The movement encompasses this unification of the Irish through centuries of oppression.: Where they are the “Irishry,” and united having undergoneby centuries of the despotism endured by the centuries ofover their people. [J5]This calling for Irish poets becomes further fortified through the undeniable and uncanny association to culture. This is what it is to be Irish and the Irish cannot turn a blind eye.andsSubmissions to the commands throughout the poem are imminent[BJ6] before again, “he can accomplish fate.” The mind occurs again in this movement and reverts back to a comparison of the mind in the third movement, “He completes his partial mind” (Yeats 30). This idea of completeness or ultimate recognition becomes the main purpose of man. In the third movement man is looking for this reason to commit a heroic act. The violence of language in the third movement coincides with the patriotic language of the fifth movement. All Irish have endured centuries of oppression and have a reason for artistic heroism. Completeness in mind, “Cast your mind on other days,” is this continued patriotism and vigor of what it means to be Irish. Learn from the past but gaze to the future with this acquired mindset, the poetical vision.
The final movement encompasses the themes infused throughout the entire poem. The poem has one final narrowing, to the engraver of Yeats’s tomb. Under this mountain, Ben Bulben, the artist and poet Yeats will be buried. This poem is uncanny, in that it all comes back around through this permeation into poetical insight. The engraver is the final person to be called upon to continue this cycle,
“By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye,
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!”(Yeats 91-94).
This cycle being described is the flow of the poem, where, humankind, artists, the Irish and this engraver are called to heroism through poetic insight, and all are under the gaze of the past and these mythic horseman of Ben Bulben. These words are cut into humanity as if they cannot be ignored. “Under Ben Bulben” describes a successful life through completeness or recognition by a higher power. Yeats, placing himself in the poem, has achieved this completeness and ends with the command to achieve immortality like him, the horseman and the words of the epitaph.
The uncanny[BJ7] cannot be intertwined better than through the existence of poetical insight to reality in “Under Ben Bulben.” The poem begins with this enormous vocation for all humanity to submit to the commands that the poem lays out;: one must commit an artistically heroic act. The poem continues to narrow it’s calling, to the Irish, to the poets and finally to the engraver of Yeats’s tomb[J8]. Concurrently the existence of the mind throughout the poem implies the monumental importance of the poem’s purpose. Immortality and success can only gained by poetical reality through the commands in the poem, Yeats uncannily becomes proof of that.
[J1]“escapism” normally indicates cowardice and failure
[BJ2]good
[J3]“proposes” or “asserts”?
[BJ4]you are right to insist by “must”; the poem begins with an imperative: “swear”
[J5]perhaps not the best solution but these two sentences needed mending
[BJ6]I am not sure that “imminent” is the right word here
[BJ7]perhaps in the beginning explain what you mean by “uncanny”
[J8]although we might think of the reader of the poem, or the reader of the epitaph, as the last one addressed