Write any two works written by W.B.Yeats.

The Green Helmet (1910) and Responsibilities (1914).

What are two characteristics features of modern Drama.
Naturalism -Naturalism is a movement in European drama and theatre that developed in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create an illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical
strategies.
Absurdism - According to Martin Esslin, absurdism is "the inevitable devaluation of ideals, purity, and purpose" Absurdist
drama asks its viewer to "draw his own conclusions, make his own errors". Though Theatre of the Absurd may be seen as
nonsense, they have something to say and can be understood".
Write a short note on poetic Drama.
Poetic Drama Poetic drama is a genre of literature that refers to plays that contain distinctly poetic elements. These are
sometimes referred to as a verse plays. In the early 1900s, a revival occurred in which writers turned again to create
poetic dramas. When readers think of poetic drama's, William Shakespear's name and plays likely come to mind. He is
best known for his tragedies, comedies and histories, all of which use elements of poetic drama.
What was Auden famous for?
Auden was a prolific writer of prose essays and reviews on literary, political, psychological, and religious subjects, and he
worked at various times on documentary films, poetic plays, and other forms of performance.
Write a short note on the major aspect of Theatre of Absurd.
Theatre of the Absurd - On stage, Theatre of the Absurd combines the elements of tragicomedy and farce to show the
absurd circumstances people go through in life. The most popular plays in this tradition include the plays of Samuel
Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Edward Albee and Harold Pinter.
Who are the major poets of the 20th Century?
T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, W.H. Auden, Langston Hughes, Kingsley Amis, Pablo Neruda, William Butler, Yeats,
Anne Sexton, Audre Lorde, Elizabeth Bishop, Emily, Dickinson, Ezra Pound, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rudyard Kipling, Wallace
Stevens, Wilfred Owen.
Write any two poems composed by T.S Eliot.
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" from 1914 to 1915, The Waste Land (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash
Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1943).
Give a brief introduction about closet Drama.
Closet drama, a drama suited primarily for reading rather than production. Examples of the genre include John Milton's
Samson Agonistes (1671) and Thomas Hardy's The Dynasts (three parts, 1903–08). Closet drama is not to be confused
with readers' theatre, in which actors read or recite without decor before an audience.
Define Sonnet and its types.
A sonnet is a type of fourteen-line poem. Traditionally, the fourteen lines of a sonnet consist of an octave (or two
quatrains making up a stanza of 8 lines) and a sestet (a stanza of six lines). Sonnets generally use a meter of iambic
pentameter, and follow a set rhyme scheme.
Sonnets and Its Types
Petrarchan Sonnets, Shakespearean Sonnets, Spenserian Sonnets, Miltonic Sonnets, Curtal Sonnets.
What do you know about the Novel of manners.
Novel of manners, work of fiction that re-creates a social world, conveying with finely detailed observation the customs,
values, and mores of a highly developed and complex society.

Write the short Summary of the poem Byzantium. By W.B Yeats.

At night in the city of Byzantium, “The unpurged images of day recede.” The drunken soldiers of the Emperor are asleep,
and the song of night-walkers fades after the great cathedral gong. The “starlit” or “moonlit dome,” the speaker says,
disdains all that is human—”All mere complexities, / The fury and the mire of human veins.” The speaker says that before
him floats an image—a man or a shade, but more a shade than a man, and still more simply “an image.” The speaker hails
this “superhuman” image, calling it “death-in-life and life-in-death.” A golden bird sits on a golden tree, which the speaker
says is a “miracle”; it sings aloud, and scorns the “common bird or petal / And all complexities of mire or blood.”
At midnight, the speaker says, the images of flames flit across the Emperor’s pavement, though they are not fed by wood
or steel, nor disturbed by storms. Here, “blood-begotten spirits come,” and die “into a dance, / An agony of trance, / An
agony of flame that cannot singe a sleeve,” leaving behind all the complexities and furies of life. Riding the backs of
dolphins, spirit after spirit arrives, the flood broken on “the golden smithies of the Emperor.” The marbles of the dancing
floor break the “bitter furies of complexity,” the storms of images that beget more images, “That dolphin-torn, that gong-
tormented sea.”

Who was the beloved of W.B Yeats.

When Yeats was twenty-three years old, he met and fell in love with the beautiful Irish nationalist, Maud Gonne.
Although she repeatedly refused to marry Yeats, Maud would become the object of his passion and his poetry.
A Poet to His Beloved Essay
“A Poet to his Beloved” is one of many poems by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats that is centered around love and
courtship. It is a poem, which dates back to 1899, and it was inspired by and dedicated to Maud Gonne, the woman of his
dreams."

What is the main theme of Lapis Lazyll written by W.B. Yeats.

The theme of Lapis Lazuli is that all forms of art can surpass the tragedies experienced within the world; therefore making
it gay. Yeats uses his theme of tragic joy throughout the poem, and often in his works toward the last few years of his life.
As an artist of literature Yeats understands he faces death like every mortal, but art is what makes things beautiful. Art
can bring people joy even in the worst of times. Art can overcome the mere tragedy of events simply by knowing
everything comes to an end. Tragic joy is the bittersweet part of life that involves the acceptance of all things good and
bad.

In the first stanza we see he believes that those who give credence to the political world will only end up with tragedy,
and no joy. The hysterical women he speaks of are those who have forsaken the arts, sick of the palette and fiddle-bow.
Specifically, he is thinking of women such as Maud Gonne who was extremely active politically, especially with the
uprising Easter uprising. These women embrace the politics of the modern world, and the modern world is stricken with
war and destruction. The womens convictions make them ugly since they are not accepting of art into their lives;
therefore they dont have joy. Yeats says that if everyone relies on politics instead of art, the world will come to an end. It
isnt the end that we should fear, but an end with no joy, no art. Yeats specifically proclaims three areas of art that are
doomed to tragedy, yet they happily go, knowing that it provides them with sanity in an insane world.

In the second stanza the reader is introduced to the first of the three arts in the form of Shakespeares tragic heroes,
Prince Hamlet and King Lear. Readers of Hamlet and Lear understand that the characters meet a tragic end, but at the
same time the heroes come to an understanding of their tragedy.

Discuss about the poem The waste land by T.S. Eliot.

T. S. Eliot’s landmark modernist poem The Waste Land was published in 1922. Divided into five sections, the poem
explores life in London in the aftermath of the First World War, although its various landscapes include the desert and the
ocean as well as the bustling metropolis. The poem is notable for its unusual style, which fuses different poetic forms and
traditions. Eliot also alludes to numerous works of literature including the Bible, Shakespeare, St Augustine, Hindu and
Buddhist sacred texts, as well as French poetry, Wagnerian opera, and Arthurian legend surrounding the Holy Grail. But
the poem is also strikingly modern in its references to jazz music, gramophones, motorcars, typists and tinned food.

Not long after its publication, The Waste Land became a talking-point among readers, with some critics hailing it as a
masterpiece that spoke for a generation of lost souls, and others denouncing it for its allusiveness (the US poet William
Carlos Williams disliked it because it ‘returned us to the classroom’) or for its unusual modernist style. It continues to
divide readers, but its reputation as one of the most influential poems of the twentieth century is secure.

Write the biography of W.B Yeats in your own words.

William Butler Yeats
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1923
Born: 13 June 1865, Dublin, Ireland
Died: 28 January 1939, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
Residence at the time of the award: Ireland
Prize motivation: “for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole
nation”.
Life
W.B. Yeats grew up in a home of artists in Dublin, and he spent summers at the family’s house in Connaught, where he
developed a close relationship with nature. These nature experiences proved to be very important for his development as
a poet. As a young man, he experienced the fin de siècle era in London that lauded mysticism, symbolism and spiritualism
and denigrated science and industrialism. Studies of the folklore and customs of the Connaught area inspired him to
contribute to the resurgence of Irish literature, which became known as the Irish Literary Renaissance.
Work
W.B. Yeats made his debut as a poet in 1887, but in his earlier period his dramatic production outweighed his poetry.
Along with playwright Lady Gregory, he founded the Irish Theatre, which later became the Abbey Theatre. His plays are
often based on Irish legends and are full of mysticism and spiritualism. After 1910 his plays became more experimental
and poetic. The later plays contained new elements, such as masks, dance and music, and were influenced by the
Japanese Noh theatre tradition. During the last 20 years of his life, he reverted increasingly to poetry.

Write the main theme of ‘’Adam’s Curse’’ by W.B. Yeats.

William Butler Yeats’s poem Adam’s Curse is about the difficulty of creating something beautiful, society’s lacking
understanding of the work of an author and poet and the sincere expression of love. Yeats being identical with the
speaker sits together with two other persons on a day in late summer.
This paper is the attempt to give a detailed interpretation on William Butler Yeats's "Adam's Curse".
William Butler Yeats introduces many significant themes in his poem Adam's Curse. As it has been discussed earlier as
well that a(ny) reader is free to enjoy exploring those of:
• Time
• Love
• Writing
As far as the latter is concerned; it starts out as the most obvious in this poem's text. W. B. Yeats spends the most time in
this poem
• Exploring writing
• Other person's perceptions of writers
• How much easier it would be to only do physically hard work.
As the poem, Adam's Curse continues Yeats incorporates the themes of Love and Time as well. He, at the last of the
poem, focuses on:
• How time transforms the way relationships are established as well as maintained; is something that the poet desires to
change

Discuss Auden,s poem in memory of W.B. Yeats as an elegy.

In Memory of W.B Yeats (1939), written by W.H Auden is an elegy which deals with the death of William Butler Yeats and
a tribute written in honour of his contribution to literature. The poem is an elegy that celebrates Yeats writings and at the
same time criticizes the modernity. The poem shows the duality of selves where the poet seems to point out the modern
society as he mourns the death of Yeats. Yeats died in 1939 which is also the year of the starting of the Second World War
which heavily impacted the modern society.
The poem talks about the death of Yeats where he “disappeared” in the “dead of the winter”. The lines are symbolical
where it reflects two selves of the modern world. As an elegy, it mourns both for the poet Yeats and also of the modern
society which is dead. The “dead of the winter” symbolizes the death and decay of the modern society. A traditional elegy
always mourns for the death of a person but Auden mourns not only of the poet but also of the society which is engaged
with superficiality and sophisticated values. The refrain “What instruments we have agree/The day of his death was a
dark cold day” is reflective of mournful elegy where the poet states that the existing measurements and calibration also
agrees that the day when Yeats departed from earth “was a dark cold day”. The “dark cold day” is evocative of two selves
in the poem which shows the dark side of the modern society and as well as the pain and grief stricken for the one’s who
loved Yeats.
There is a sense of remembrances which the poet tries to project in the poem. Traditional elegies evokes a past
remembrances and memory of deceased in an elegaic manner but Auden projects it in a different way. Yeats as a poet
was a modern poet and modern writings are objective and hence “The death of the poet was kept from his poems”
reflecting the objectivity of art. Yeats may have died physically but his art remains and will be remembered in his works.
People will read his work and his work will be evaluated and criticized by the new readers where “The words of a dead
man/ Are modified in the guts of the living”.
The poem then turn into discourse of Yeats contribution to poetry. A sense of disillusionment which arrives not because
of the decease poet Yeats but of the modern society. The poem is able to celebrate Yeats as a poet and gives tribute to his
writings and also mocks and criticizes the society that never appreciates his writings and contributions. Auden highlights
that Yeats has pour out the harsh reality of Ireland in his poems yet his poetry never brought any light to the eyes of the
people. The people never bothered about the poetry at all but Auden believes that his writings will flow and can never be
stopped that “Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,/ A way of happening, a mouth.”
The poet then commemorates his death which is beautifully weaved in the lines where”Earth, receive an honoured
guest:/William Yeats is laid to rest./Let the Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.” Auden seems to find solace and solitude in the works of Yeats poetry where he celebrates and
gives tribute to his literary writings. He is ironical in his representation where he attacks the modern society who are
barking like a dog at night and invokes the reality of modern society but he celebrates Yeats poem which is able to bring a
sense of rejoice amidst the political and social turmoil in the society. Auden concludes the poem that the poems of Yeats
should help teach man how to be free and rejoice amidst the pain and dark cold days.

What are the Characteristics features of modern Drama?

There are some characteristics of MODERN DRAMA. These are given below. • Naturalism • Absurdism • Realism.
Naturalism: A manner or technique of treating subject matter that presents, through volume of detail, a deterministic
view of human life and actions. Modern Playwrights like Henric Ibsen show naturalism in their writings. As Henric Ibsen
showed in his A Doll’s House that women are always dominated by men and society as well.
Absurdism: The philosophical and literary doctrine that human beings live in essential isolation in a meaningless and
irrational world. One of the prominent modern Playwrights is J.M Synge. In his play Playboy of the Western World he
showed how people accept absurd things or happenings in their life. Samuel Beckett has developed this type of drama
throughout his plays; Waiting for Godot , Endgame, and Not I.
Realism: The movement or style of representing familiar things as they actually are. Realism in the theatre was a general
movement that began in 19th-century theatre, around the 1870s, and remained present through much of the 20th
century. It developed a set of dramatic and theatrical conventions with the aim of bringing a greater reliability of real life
to texts and performances.

Can love be said to be a major theme in Auden’s poetry ? Discuss with special reference to his poem In Memory of W.B
Yeats.
Love Forming a Dominant Theme:
In Auden poetry love forms a dominant theme. Throughout the development of his poetic genius, love is seen closely
associated with the ideas. But the distinguishing feature of this love poetry is that his is not traditional love poetry. His
treatment of love reflects an intellectual approach. He employs it as an idea, a concept, which is part of his poetic
thought. However, there has been a bit of confusion about the love poetry of Auden. In its early stage, the word ‘love’
was used by the poet vaguely. Secondly, Auden has always been suspicious of romantic love.
The Use of Love in His Poetry:
According to Auden, romantic love is self – love in disguise, which is falsehood. Such love takes us away from reality. But
love has been used by Auden as a healing principle rather than an emotional realisation. Poetry has been employed by
Auden as a means of giving imaginative colouring to his thoughts about love. As a result, we notice a lack of the agony,
poignancy, rapture and yearning.

Trace at the Surrealistic elements in Dylan Thomas poetry with a special reference to his poems prescribed.
During the 1930s Dylan Thomas was often associated with Surrealism, and, equally often, vehemently repudiated it. “I
have not, never have been, and never will be, or could be for that matter, a Surrealist”, he informed his editor at Dent,
Richard Church, in December 1935, “and for a number of reasons: I have very little idea what Surrealism is; until quite
recently I had never heard of it; I have never, to my knowledge, read even a paragraph of Surrealist literature” (Thomas
2000: 231–2). At the time, however, Church, who had written to Thomas to deplore signs of what he called this
“abhorrent” and “pernicious” trend in his work, was threatening to stall the publication of his second collection Twenty-
Five Poems (1936), and Thomas’s response was nothing if not disingenuous.
The truth is that Thomas was viewed as a Surrealist in the 1930s, and has been since, with good reason. His claims of
innocence certainly did not fool all of his contemporaries, and have not always fooled literary historians: Paul Ray (1971:
277), indeed, claims in his The Surrealist Movement in England that “of the major poets of our time, Dylan Thomas was
the one most influenced by Surrealism”. 4 Indeed, the vehement and often self-contradictory nature of the denials leads
one to suspect that Thomas was playing an elaborate game of hide and seek, or fort-da, with his critics, perhaps even
with himself. The New Testament (with Peter’s triple disavowal of Christ), the Hegelian-Marxist dialectic (and its
“negation of the negation”) and Freudian psychoanalysis (based on the notion of repression), all important sources for
Thomas’s writing, are reminders that the vehemence of a rejection is often in inverse proportion to the importance of
what is being denied.

Discuss the characteristics of 20th Century poetry?

Discuss the common Characteristics of the twentieth century poets.
[1] Humanism and Democratic Notes - Modern poetry is marked with a note of humanitarianism and democratic feeling.
The modern poets, more than Wordsworth, are interested in the life of laborers and workers and others. Masefield,
Gibson, Goldsworthy are mainly interested in the common man and his sufferings. In their poetry, there is a note of
sympathy for their struggles and sufferings. Masefield’s Consecration is a representative poem bringing out the modern
poets’ concern with the life of common people.
[2] Realism - The poetry of the 20th century is marked with a note of realism. Realism in modern poetry was the product
of a reaction against the pseudo-romanticism of the last century over and above the influence of science. The modern
poet sees life and paints it as it is with all its wait and ugliness. He tears the veil which the romanticists had hug between
life and art. Robert Frost, Edmund Blunden, and Gibson are the poets of realism in modern poetry. The best expression of
realism in modern poetry is also found among the war poets.
[3] Imagism - Imagism is another important characteristic of Modern poetry. The origins of Imagism and cubist poetry are
to be found in two poems by T. E. Hulme that were published in 1909 by the Poets' Club in London. The Imagist
Movement was given rise by T. E. Hulme. The imagists reacted against Georgian poetry which they criticized facite. The
imagists argued that the Georgians were escapists. Hulme insisted that the poetry should restrict itself to the world
perceived by the sense.
[4] Romanticism - Inspite of the preponderance of realism in modern poetry, the spirit of romance continuous to sway the
minds of certain poets like Walter De La Mare, W. B. Yeats, John Masefield and Edward Thomas. The works of these poets
have proven the fact that the spirit of romance is as old as life itself. Walter De La Mare’s poetry is saturated with the true
romantic spirit boarding on supernaturalism.
[5] Pessimism - There is a note of pessimism and disillusionment in modern poetry. The modern poet has realized the
pettiness of human life and the tragedy and suffering of the poor have made him gloomy and sad. Poetry as the
expression of the feeling has become autumnal in tone T. Hardy, Huxley and T.S. Eliot are the poets of Pessimism and
disillusionment in modern poetry. The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot presents before us the immense panorama of futility and
anarchy which is contemporary history.
[6] Mysticism - The modern age is the age of science, but even in this scientific age, we have poems written on the subject
of religion and mysticism. G. K. Chesterton, W.B. Yeats, Francis Thompson, Robert Graves are the great poets who have
kept alive the flame of mysticism in their poetry. The poetry of W. B. Yeats is marked with a mystical dream like quality.
One of the most notable aspects of his poetry is his imagery. Chesterton, being the great mystic poet of modern age,
evokes the feelings of mysticism in his poems Ballad of White Horse and The House of Christmas.
[7] Complexity and Psychology - Some modern poets are interested in delving deep into the recesses of the subconscious
mind. Some of the poems of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound are difficult to follow because of their psychological complexity and
difficult imagery. In the last hundred years, complexity has been more and more heavily born in all of us.
[8] Love and Nature - Love forms the subject of many modern lyrics Robert Bridges has produced fine sonnets of Love in
The Growth of Love. I Will Not Let Thee Go are some of the lyrics that shows Love in the poetry. W.B. Yeats’ When You
are Old is a fine poem of Love.
Nature attracts the modern poet no less than the poets of the earlier ages. But for the modern poet, nature is not a
mystic. He does not find any spiritual meaning in nature. He feels jolly at the sight of nature’s loveliness. Masefield,
Robert Bridges, Edmund Blunden etc are the great poets of nature in modern poetry.
[9] New Styles - Modern poets have a preference for simple and direct expression. Modern poets have chosen to be free
in the use of meter. They have followed freedom from trammels of verse.Verse rhythm is replaced by sense rhythm.
There is free movement in 20th-century English poetry.