Passion was a central theme in the work of the beloved and Nobel Prize winning Irish poet William Butler Yeats. This film explores how passion is woven through both his life and poetry with UCSB professor Enda Duffy and author T.C. Boyle.
Wonderful summary of Yeats and his work. Despite the swift passage through his career, the documentary doesn't pander or over-simplify. Well worth the 24 minutes, especially if that leads to picking up the poems.
Prof Enda Duffy reminisces about Yeats as if they spent half a century together as next-door neighbours. His tone is intimate and exuberant. Yeats exalts his stature by exulting in the travails of love and its detritus---the inextinguishable phosphorescence of velleities.
A great poet. A Singer of Life. A Singer to Life. Who else but a great poet could write: "Being certain that they and I But lived where motley is worn: All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born" Using motley, as the noun, meaning, "the multicoloured costume of a jester", AND, by implication, "an incongruous mixture". Brilliant. But now, no more - "A terrible beauty is born" - rising up out of the struggle for that most human need, the ideal of Liberty.
A wonderful lecture, listened to in Sri Lanka by "Sinhala_Man". That is what I call myself when trying to rouse the conscience of my race-besotted relatives. One appreciates this all the more if one has actually been reading Yeats for many years and pondering on the man's life. He died just in time, at the beginning of the Second World War. Had he lived longer, he would, without doubt, have aligned himself with Hitler, and his reputation would certainly have suffered. Thanks, Professor Harry Oliver.
The Nobel was 1923 not 26. Sadly there is a doco on RU-vid casting doubt on wheter they are his none in the grave but R.I.P. wherever he is. His work will live on.
You listen to the beauty of his poetry and you realize how weird it is that for a while Yeats believed that "Vision", a book based on his wife's automatic writing that he thought prophetized the events of the next hundread years (he was heavily into the occult and all that stuff), would be his "book of books". PS: if you like Yeats' poetry, you'll find readings of "The Withering of the Boughs" and "The Scholars" on my channel.
Whats the expression of tomorrow without us lost forever looking for it nor here nor there but somewhere looking to be the listener the guest to the infinite night falling for our eyes to hold our pain saying where still here today
Yeats is my favorite poet however, I find it hypocritic that he himself resides in London and demands his Irish poeople to go up in arms against the English forces to gain independence. He could've lived an honourable life in Ireland. I realize London along with Paris used to be the centre of literary pursuits but he could've corresponded with other writers from his home country.
Yeats did spend part of his life in Ireland. Though he was a truly great poet, he could be a mean-minded man. His refusal to include the poems of WILFRED OWEN in the Oxford Book of English Verse, when he edited it, was a disgusting thing to do. And his 'justification' was nonsense.
I’m always surprised when I see her pictures. I guess after reading his poems and hearing she inspired, it’s hard not to be like “dang! She’s kind of meh versus the expectation!” No matter how good someone looks. After all, to me she’s just some woman except for Yeats.
There are just as many talented, successful American writers as there are Irish ones, percentage wise. There are just as many un published american writers as there are Irish ones. There are just as many un talented published and successful American writers as there Irish ones.....
