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Analysis Of The Poem ' Yeats '

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Yeats has composed an effectively concise poem of only twelve lines in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is harnessed to replicate human speech patterns; as if the four rhetorical questions are being posed to the reader from the speaker. The romantic and personal content of this poem creates a certain level of intimacy the reader will feel with Yeats. With a simple ABABCDCDEFEF rhyming structure there is a crucial lack of rhyming couplets (often used to accentuate a couple 's closeness). Therefore a distance is already established between the speaker and their subject. Additionally, Yeats creates the emotional response to this poem by exploring historical, personal, political and classical mythological elements. Yet, at the very foreground this is a love poem, and the underlying focus on love makes this poem a typical lyric. It is important to consider the historical context of this poem. Rather, whom Yeats intended it to be aimed at. The object of Yeats affection during the period this poem was written is Irish Feminist and Revolutionary Maud Gonne; she was to be his muse and the catalyst of his poetic yearnings1. However, Gonne never accepted Yeats ' multiple marriage proposals which evidently (through his writings) was a great source of grief for Yeats. Furthermore, Yeats establishes a binary opposition between the speaker and the subject. The speaker who condemns the subject 's vicious beauty 'a kind That is not natural in an age like this, ' is presented as a man

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