"I am of ireland": history and politics in the poetry of William Butler Yeats

Abstract

Abstract : The present thesis aimed at investigating modern Irish poetry and its relation to the historical and political context in which it is inserted. More specifically, the poetry of William Butler Yeats, who was one of the major organizers of the Irish Literary Revival. A movement that had the objective of revitalizing the national identity of Ireland after the process of colonization. The corpus was composed of seven poems from different books. They were: ?To Ireland in the Coming Times? (1892), ?September 1913? (1913), ?The Fisherman? (1916), ?Easter, 1916? (1916), ?Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen?, (1921), ?Come Gather Around me, Parnellites?(1937), ?Politics?(1939). The chronological order of publication of the poems was followed in order to investigate changes in relation to the political positioning of the poet. This study was grounded on the presupposition that the political poems written by Yeats were important to the process of decolonization of Ireland and that history and politics can present other possibilities when they are discussed by means of poetry.

A presente dissertação teve como objetivo investigar a poesia irlandesa moderna e sua relação com o contexto histórico e político no qual está inserida. Mais especificamente, a poesia de William Butler Yeats, um dos principais organizadores do Irish Literary Revival. Um movimento que teve o objetivo de revitalizar a identidade nacional da Irlanda após o processo de colonização. O corpus foi composto por sete poemas de diferentes livros. Foram eles: To Ireland in the Coming Times (1892), September 1913 (1913), The Fisherman (1916), Easter, 1916 (1916), Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen , (1921), Come Gather Around me, Parnellites (1937), Politics (1939). A ordem cronológica de publicação dos poemas foi seguida a fim de investigar as mudanças em relação ao posicionamento político do poeta. Este estudo baseou-se no pressuposto de que os poemas políticos escritos por Yeats foram importantes para o processo de descolonização da Irlanda e que a história e a política podem apresentar outras possibilidades quando eles são discutidos por meio da poesia.