Volume : 7, Issue : 2, February - 2018

W.B. Yeats: The Poet of Passion

Dr. Archana Kumari

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size:14.0pt;&#10;font-family:&quot;Arial Narrow&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;background:#EEEEEE">Passion was a central theme in the work of the beloved and Nobel Prize winning Irish poet </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size:14.0pt;&#10;font-family:&quot;Arial Narrow&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">1923 <span style="background:#EEEEEE">William Butler Yeats</span> born in 1865.<span style="background:white"> Yeats&rsquo; passion for Maud Gonne was beautiful but futile. Yet the poetry that such passion generated, in particular this love poem has an eternal value for those who know the depths of passion, of love that needs no use but its purpose of loving. While most of Yeats&rsquo; poems are complex, filled with symbolism and structural variance, &ldquo;When You Are Old&rdquo; seems relatively simple and straight-forward. Yet, this small poem continues to resonate with readers who feel a deep human connection to either a lost loved one or the process of aging, or both.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Yeats expresses what draws him to a poet, perhaps giving some insight into why this little poem was made and continues to move people, despite its simplicity</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>