Yeats, Brooke, Owen e Context

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Data:	17.01.2007
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YEATS
He was born in Dublin in 1865. he addressed himself to literature and became involved with the Irish nationalist movement. However, his nationalism was essentially LITERARY rather than political. He advocated the need for a distinctive and proud Irish culture to reconstruct an ideal and free Irish nation.
His early poetry was much influenced by his unrequited love for a woman, Maud Gonne, and his style by the English aesthetic movement.
In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature. He died in France in 1939.
Yeats was one of the two major poet ( with Eliot) of the first half of the 20th century. Like Eliot he was influenced by European MODERNISM but, unlike Eliot, in that there are also important indigenous elements, both English and Irish in his works.
His early poetry is very much in the romantic tradition but colored by a love for Irish landscapes and legends. It is represented by “the lake isle of Innesfree”. The poem expresses dreams of escape to a simple idyllic life on a small solitary island which is part of Irish folk-legend.
Yeats growing interest in the political situation in Ireland brought about an important change in his poetry. The interest change from legendary Ireland to contemporary Ireland. > EASTER = tries to explore and weigh the complexities of a recent event. The uprising took Yeats entirely by surprise; this is made clear at the beginning of the poem. In the second part he names and honours those who sacrificed themselves to the Irish cause. in the third the stones stand as a symbol of certainty of purpose against a number of images involving changes in life.
His style too has changed and become less onorate and more vigorous.
Yeats’s later poems are much admired in academic circles, but often difficult to understand.

BROOKE
He was born in 1887. he wrote his five famous war sonnets when he was home on leave.
He saw little action because he died of blood poisoning in 1915.
His early death on war service turned him into the symbol of the young hero. His poetry achieved immediate fame. From Brooke war is not seen as a cruel experience and death in war his not a tragic but a noble end.
The imagery is smooth and sweet like the rhythm.
The poem was so successful because caught the patriotic and idealistic mood of the moment before the British realized the horror of the war.

OWEN
He was born in Shropshire in 1893. In 1913 he went in France but returned in 1915 to enlist in the British army. The horrors of war shocked him very much. After serving in trenches, he was posted home on sick leave.
In September 1918 he returned to achieve service in France. He was killed in action in November 1918.
Subject matter of his poems is the reality of war, not glorification of war. The role of the poet is to convey the horror of war to those who have no direct experience of war, so that the future futile and destructive conflicts can be avoided. The poet’s main concern is not with melodious language or perfection of form. The conventions of traditional poetry are not well-suited in the description of trench warfare.
Important > UNRELENTING REALISM OF HIS PORTRAIT OF WAR.
The poem Futility is born out of an incident in the trenches: a young soldier is dead and nothing can bring him back to life. the poem Is about the futility of life that can be cut short so pointlessly by war.
Owen was a skilful and varied versified. His major technical innovation was the use of half-rhymes para-rhymes.

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The period following the death of queen Victoria was one of relative calm under the reign of her son, Edward VII. The Boer war between Britain and the white Afrikaners of south-Africa which had started in 1899 ended in1902 and a period of social reform started in the field of education and welfare.
When George V ascended the throne all the sources of turmoil came in surface. The reforms carried out in preceding years led to an increase in taxation and conflict in parliament ending with a parliament act which deprive the house of the lords of the power of veto over financial matters. The trade unionism started to develop and this was further occasion for unrest.
The suffragette movement founded in 1903 by Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter gained force and used militant and even violent tactics. In 1918 the suffragettes obtained the right to vote for women over 30 and in 1928 to women over 21.
Home rule for Ireland, which was meant to grant Ireland independence under the Crown, had been a problem since the 1880s. when the liberal Party in power attempted to enact legislation again in 1912 the Ulster protestants who wanted union with Great Britain, threatened Civil War. In 1916 southern Catholics, who wanted an independent republic of Ireland rose in open rebellion. The rebellion was crushed and the leaders executed, but the problem was not solved as IRA resorted to terrorist tactics. The war with the Irish Republican Army which was ended, after the 1st WW, by a treaty which created the IRISH FREE STATE in 1921 kept SIX COUNTIES OF ULSTER under British rule.
The historical period was characterized by the phenomenon of war. The first World War brought to the end the illusion that problem could be solved peacefully. No war before has had such a shattering physical an psychological impact on British population. Olmost a million young men died.
The treaty of VERSAILLES which concluded the war, was very unsatisfactory for all European countries involved in it because it left too many problems unsolved.
Britain had to face problems within the Empires well. The colonies claimed their independence and in 1926 the Dominion Imperial Conference in London declared them autonomous but united by a common alliance with the Crown and associated to the British Commonwealth. In 1920 in India GANDHI had started a policy of non-violent protest against the British government which led to an increase in Indian participation in government.
The economic difficulties of the 1920s and 30s created a fertile climate for the rise of TOTALITARISM. However there was no danger of British parliamentary democracy succumbing to either communism or fascism. The typical british view was that they were equally wicked and undemocratic. The general attitude was that democracy must be defended at all costs.
The popular response to the outbreakacy must be defended at all costs. of the 2nd world war in 1939 was overwhelming. It was called the people’s war because of the sense of national unity and purpose which was apparent particuly in 40-41 when Britain stood alone against Germany. Unlike the 1st WW, the 2sd WW was fought for the ideal of DEFENDING DEMOCRACY AGAISNT TOTALITARISM.

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT
The Edwardian era was characterized by some important social reforms which laid the basis for the development of the welfare state.
Old Age pensions and national insurance scheme were introduced and the 1902 education act paved the way for subsequent acts in 1918 and 1944 which established a system of secondary school education for children up to the age of 15.
The experience of the 1st WW deeply affected both the economic and the social fabric of Britain. At the end of the war Britain had to face the devaluation of its currency , the heavy taxation and the industrial decline. The idea of the Empire was weakened by the pressing demand for independence by the colonies. Although a large minority hoped in a reconstruction of a traditional way of life according to Victorian ideals, the dominant mood of the country was one of unrest.
The depression and the unemployment of the post-war period brought poverty and hunger and an increase in trade union activity and other forms of protest. The General Strike of the 1926 was a sing of the seriousness of the economic crisis. This strike involved all categories of workers > indication of tension between unions and government.
Women, who had partly run the country while men were in war, gained new strength. So began women’s emancipation, as the consequence of this change in attitude and the granting of the right to vote. The traditional family started to change > both parents worked.
The sense of nationality identity started to crumble too.
The rigid class system of the Victorian age was maintained and in a sense strengthened by economic factors.

THE CULTURAL CONTEXT
One of main aspects of the period from a cultural point of view was the international character of many of its features. The main dilemma was on belief. Men seem to have exhausted their spirituals supplies. The experience of the horror of the war was conveyed in poetry of soldiers who went through it. An influential pacifist movement developed.
The general tendency to question the all past values and to move from objectivity to subjectivity was brought about by various new theories.
British intellectuals and writers were greatly influenced by ideals coming from other European countries.
NIETZSCHE > proclaimed that god was dead. The conflict over religious belief which had started with Darwin’s theories intensifies and brought about a general sense of lack of purpose and meaning in life.
FREUD > opened the way to the exploration of the subconscious and the unconscious. He described consciousness as a complicated multi-layered phenomenon, in which the past coexist with the present. Each individual responded to reality according to his own personal history; their perception of reality was a subjective experience.
JUNG> reached the conclusion that there is a collective unconscious and not an individual one. The artist is a person who is particularly gifted in bringing these unconscious images in surface.
FRAZER> published a study of primitive ritual and myth. He claimed that no human practice is unique but is understandable in the light of a common mythical background.
EINSTEIN > propounded the theory of relativity. It became harder to be sure about the reality. This uncertainty about the foundations of it and of moral values clearly undermined the figure of the omniscient narrator.
The experience of the 1st WW undermined the faith in progress, social system and the validity of the institution. New outlook> importance of individual human being, individual sensibility, individual consciousness.
An the arts questioning of contemporary literary values and the search for new models represent the new perception of reality found expression in a movement known as MODERNISM. It included many divergent theories which were all characterized by the overthrow of traditional artistic conventions.
he figure of the omniscent narrator.
mined y. light of a common mythical background. urface. the number rest.

41 when britain c overwhelming. d, which was meant to grant Ireland indipendence