Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Poem Analysis and Biblio.

Here it is. I think it's going up on Kelsey's blog as well, but I thought I'd post it here too.

Those Dancing Days Are Gone by W.B Yeats.


The theme in the poem Those Dancing Days Are Gone by William B. Yeats can be interpreted in more way than one; but however one chooses to interpret, it will always have some similarities to what Yeats was talking about. For example, there is the obvious message that something happy or perhaps celebratory is now gone. In this case what is gone is someone’s wife and children. In the first verse it says ‘wrapping that foul body up in as foul a rag:’, which would be the body being wrapped up after death. This could also be looked at as a woman who has lost the youngness of her life. The young days of dancing and fun have disappeared and now she has to work and have responsibilities.
There is a flaw though to this latter interpretation, as in the second verse it says how ‘the children he gave, are somewhere sleeping like a top under a marble flag?’ A marble flag could be a gravestone; suggesting that her children are dead as well as her. The last part of the sentence is also a rhetorical question which enables the reader to think even more about what point is being conveyed.

The rhyming scheme is, as in almost all Irish poetry, a basic pattern of: ABABCDCD. The Irish poets were not ones to come up with new concepts for poetry, and Those Dancing Days Are Gone is no exception to that rule. The use of allusions is present in the poem, ‘I carry the sun in a golden cup, the moon in a silver bag’ is referring to, as is no surprise in Irish poetry, (especially from Yeats) a myth from the Irish. This is also repetition—those two lines show up at the end of every verse.
Notice as well that the sun, “in a cup” which is open at the top, while a “silver bag” would be closed, and not necessarily letting light out. Hiding the sad feelings, letting the happiness show through. This is not necessarily the actual meaning; however one could quite well interpret it as this. In this poem, there is not a lot of imaging using comparisons, but rather ideas are written to mean just what the words say. This is again something typical to Irish poetry; although there can be an underlying meaning as well.

The third and final verse is written about the burial; the lines of ’a man may put pretence away who leans upon a stick’ has short alliterations which when reading, help the poem flow better. This verse also talks about someone who takes care of the burial, perhaps, of people. He would be someone who might lean upon a stick—or a shovel, and to him it would not matter who he was burying.
Altogether the poem Those Dancing Days Are Gone fashions a sad yet optimistic story that does show how to someone, those dancing days really are gone.






W.B Yeats bibliography.

http://www.poetry-archive.com/y/yeats_w_b.html
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wbyeats.htm
http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/william_butler_yeats/poems/10324