How to Appreciate Poetry The Wild Swans of Coole

In the twentieth century of English poetry, in the beautiful land of Northern Ireland, one of the greatest poets of modern English writers, Yeats, was born. Born into a middle-class family, he spent his childhood in County Sleaure, and as a teenager was sensitive and shy by nature. In his youth, he entered the poetic world, and in his twilight years, he embraced the Irish national tradition, creatively absorbed the best poems at home and abroad, and with a high degree of fusion of rationality and sensibility, and a skillful grafting of symbolism and realism, he wrote the ancient poems, and became a far-reaching master of his generation. Yeats's era is the era of British poetry has experienced vicissitudes ----- such as the late romantic. Aestheticism, Symbolism, Modernism. He was eclectic, and each period had excellent love poetry, and made unique achievements, creating an era of his own. Read Yeats's love poetry, can feel the life and the human heart to purify the course of the sky, from which we can read his distinctive features ----- that is in the dream to see the true feelings, in the sadness and suffering of the true feelings, in the true feelings of the deep philosophical thinking.

Paradox is the peak of poetry. Allen Tate, a New Criticism figure. Allen Tate and I.A. Richards put forward by the New Critics, and by the New Critics, Cleanth? Cleanth?Brooks, a New Critic, elaborated that "only through the use of paradox in a poem can a poet express his truth" and that "any poem that can stand the test of paradox is a good poem, otherwise it is not a good poem". Paradoxes abound in Chinese and English poetry. For example, "I am sentimental, but I am not sentimental, but I realize that I cannot laugh in front of you" (Du Mu). "Thunder is heard in a silent place" (Lu Xun). "Parting is such sweet sorrow" (William Shakespeare). "To live a life half-dead , a living death" (John Million).

Poetry is closely related to philosophy. Shelley said, "Poetry is never with mirth; the wisdom of poetry is always rubbed with mirth." ② American poet Robert Frost said, "Poetry begins with joy and ends with wisdom." ③ Existentialist philosopher Heidegger said, "Poetry and philosophy are neighbors." ④ And Yeats was even bolder: "Philosophy is a dangerous subject". ⑤ But his poetry is inevitably close to philosophy. For him the content of poetry was of greater value than the form. He thought that a poem was worthless if it did not express something higher than itself. He began to turn from everyday themes to philosophical ones. Yeats said, "Goethe said that the poet needs philosophy, but he must keep it out of his work." But he could not help rubbing philosophy into his work. Now take "The Wild Swans of Coole" to try to discuss the paradoxical philosophy in his poetry.

I. Swan ----- hypocritically noble

Throughout the ages, swans have been favored for their graceful and elegant posture and serene and dignified demeanor, and have become a symbol of nobility and innocence. Ancient people often have beautiful poems to praise its high aspirations, the object to say a lot. Yeats had an inextricable attachment to the swan, but I read from his contempt for the swan and hypocritical criticism of purity. Baudelaire wrote "The swan is a fable of the aging of the city (Paris)." (6) The Mexican poet Anrique? ***The Mexican poet Anrique Salace? Martinez, a Mexican poet, was tired of "the animal that flaunts its grace, but cannot feel the soul of things or the flavor of nature," and wrote the astonishing "The Snapping of the Swan's Neck". Yeats' lasciviousness towards swans can be found in his disgusting portrayal of Leda and the Swan. The story told in this poem is derived from Greek mythology. Legend has it that Leda was the wife of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, and she was so beautiful that Zeus, the king of the gods, could not help but fall in love with her. Zeus in the guise of a swan and Leda, Leda was pregnant and gave birth to two beautiful daughters, one named Helen, one named Clytemnestra. Later, these two stunning beauty of the Greek world stirred up the bottom: Helen's elopement with the Trojan prince, a married woman, led to a 10-year "burned down the towers and walls" of the Trojan War, and Clytemnestra in order to punish her husband Agamemnon's regicide, and her lover and the murder of the slaughter of the return of the Greek the supreme commander of the allied forces returning from the massacre. Yeats paints an ugly picture of Zeus as a noble swan to carry out his debauchery: "Suddenly: on the staggering maiden / A pair of wings still fluttering / A pair of black webbed feet caressing her thighs / A goose's beak on her neck / His breasts pressed against her breasts which she could not get out of the way / And the fingers, O, awed / How could they push the glory of the white feathers from between the loose legs? / The body, tumbled down in the snow-white corduroy / Felt only the strange heartbeat thereof!" (Flying White translation) Back at Yezkul's estate, is he also dreaming of Zeus' lovemaking, as a so-called noble swan nestled next to his dream lover? No, because his lover (in fact, not at all) has long been married to another woman. The poet had no choice but to add the word "wild" in front of the word "swan". This is not about the wind and the moon. We can read his disappointment as well as savor his anguish for love, as evidenced by the poem: "Never, never give your whole heart, / For in the eyes of those wild women, / If love is to be taken for granted, / It seems as if it's not worth thinking about, / Who never think / That it will vanish in a kiss from one to the other, / For every lovely thing / Is but a short, dreamy, affectionate thing, / And a little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little, little...". A dreamy, affectionate delight. / Never, never offer a heart, / For women, though they may talk, / Pour out their hearts for the sake of a game. / But who can play well enough, if dumb, deaf and blind with love? / He who did this, now recognizes the price, / For he gave and lost his whole heart." (Translated by Qiu Xiaolong)

II.59---- joyfully lonely

The original excerpt from The Swans of Kure reads as follows:

The forests are beautiful in late autumn, and the boulevards are dry, and in the twilight of October, the turquoise water is reflected in the blue sky, and the swans are fifty-nine in number, and they play in the water amongst the rocks and stones. The first swans were counted, and it has been nineteen years since then. The swans suddenly flew and swam, and the counting was not yet finished, and the sound of their wings was whooshing and swishing, and they flew around and circled again. ......" (translated by Liu Shijun) The poet Yeats sat in the manor house of Coole, watched the swans flying freely, and gently counted: one, two, ......, fifty-nine. We can imagine his joy of seeing the swans, and we can better appreciate his loneliness. Can the poet really count the fifty-nine swans on the lake? I was born in the countryside and grew up in the countryside. When I was young, I also counted the big birds foraging in the fields in winter, but I never counted the limited dozens of birds. Numbers in poetry generally express the unreality of language. English poems such as "and I will come again, my love, / tho it were ten thousand miles!"(Pence) (I will come back, my love, even if ten thousand miles separate me!). The word "ten thousand miles" only highlights the distance and emphasizes the poet's fidelity to his love. Another example is: "ten thousand saw I at a glance , / tossing their heads in sprightly dance." (Wordsworth) (only see ten thousand infinite, with the wind laying down and dancing endlessly) "ten thousand" refers to the poet's time. " refers to the poet's joyful mood at that time. The fifty-nine swans are a symbol of the loneliness in the poet's heart. As we all know, swans are famous for their love between male and female, and once they love each other, they will follow each other forever. The poet's fifty-nine swans were mourning each other, standing all alone and feeling sorry for themselves. Isn't this a reflection of the poet's state of mind at that time? The poet met a girl when he was young, it was January 30, 1889, the twenty-three-year-old Yeats first met the beautiful actress Maud? Gunn, who was twenty-two years old and the daughter of a British colonel in Ireland. Maud Gon was the daughter of a British colonel in Ireland. Gunn was not only incredibly beautiful, she was also slender. Yeats fell in love with Maud Gonne at first sight. Yeats fell in love at first sight with Maud Gon, and was so in love with her that Yeats described the first time he saw her: "She was a very beautiful girl, and she was very beautiful. Yeats described the first time he saw Maud, "She stood by the window, with a mass of apple blossoms beside her; and she was as radiant as if she had been the petals of a sunbeam." Yeats was y in love with her, but felt hopeless because of the noble image she had formed in his mind; the young Yeats felt "immature and unfulfilled," so he had not yet confessed his love for her, even though it tormented him. Yeats's anguish and misery over Maud? Yeats's pain and misery at the hopelessness of his love for Gunn prompted Yeats to write many poems against Maud. The poems that Yeats wrote in response to Maud's love for Gon were the first to be written by Yeats. Gunn continues to inspire Yeats; sometimes it is passionate love, sometimes it is desperate resentment, and more often it is the complex tension between love and hate.

Perhaps the poet on the shore of the manor was searching for his sixtieth "swan" on the surface of the lake in his mind ------. Gunn, can be with her "heart to heart". Alas, Sauvignon Blanc, in the manor, the autumn breeze sends refreshing forest color beauty, swans dancing shadow is single, on the long days of the blue sky, under the green water of the waves; long days and long distances soul fly bitter, look up at the sky long sigh, long Sauvignon Blanc, destroy the heart and liver. The poet lost love, but gained beautiful poetry ----- line by line can not reach the realization of the dream of the text; rows and rows of tears of innocence presents the infinite joy of loneliness. The joy belongs to the swan, but the solitude is left to the poet.

Three, than the wings ----- happy sadness

Aristotle said in the Poetics: "The drama of sorrow and misery most strengthens our pleasure." (7) Allen? Poe believed that the purpose of the poem is to pursue pleasure, the poem gives people excitement, move the reader and urge tears. Therefore, "misery is the most appropriate tone of the poem". (8) Yeats used "textured images to express abstract philosophies, with bright colors and high pitched tones, but containing many levels of complex meaning". In the poem "Coole's swan", he is the texture of the image ----- swan to express his abstract philosophy ----- happy sadness. Re-reading "The Swan of Coole" . Original text: "Pairs don't know how to get tired, their mood never gets old, they swim happily in the clear stream, or fly into the clouds, they fly and swim as much as they want, and they are happy to be close to each other. Wonderful swans, swimming in the blue water, one day I woke up, but the swans were gone. Where do they nest? What lake amuses the eyes?" (Translated by Guanshan). This is the poet's reflection after nineteen years. The swans on the lake are relaxed, graceful and happy. The poet sighs, "How beautiful the swan is, my heart is against sadness, when I first heard the sound of spreading wings, my steps were still light and fast, the swan flies as in the past, but the scenery has been completely changed." See the male and female love swans, the thought of not being able to tie the knot with his beloved, the poet produced an unnamable sadness, everything has changed, the light is easy to pass, life is easy to old, three points of despair, seven points of sadness. The poet "always describes his own life", but he is never "straightforward". His poems are "never an accidental coincidence, nor a careless babbling at breakfast, but a kind of regenerative thought, with an intended purpose, and with its full meaning." Yeats' reflections and meditations in "The Swan of Coole" mature his philosophy of paradox in poetry. There is a sense of inner life, a discovery of the true meaning of love, and a burning of philosophical feelings in this poem, which brings the reader an emotional shockwave that the sweetness of love contains a cruel sadness.

Yeats's paradoxical poetics is his use of "stanzas for ploughing and ploughing / Transforming curses into vineyards / Out of a burst of ecstasy in suffering / Singing of mankind's imperfections." ⑨ A beautiful country, an immortal poetic soul. Ireland can do without bagpipes, but Ireland must not do without Yeats. Yeats is immortal! Yeats' poetry is immortal!

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