Irish Literature – Interesting Literature

A Summary and Analysis of W. B. Yeats’ ‘Under Ben Bulben’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Under Ben Bulben’ was completed in 1938, just one year before W. B. Yeats’s death. This makes it one of his last great poems; indeed, he dictated the final revisions to the poems from his deathbed. Yeats dated ‘Under Ben Bulben’ to September 4^th, 1938.

The poem is perhaps best-known for its final three lines, which actually helped to inspire Yeats to write ‘Under Ben Bulben’: the lines ‘Cast a cold eye / On life, on death. / Horseman, pass by!’ became Yeats’s epitaph, and can be found on his tomb. Anyway, the best way to offer an analysis of this poem is perhaps by going through it and summarising/analysing each section as we go.

A Short Analysis of W. B. Yeats’ ‘Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop’ first appeared as part of the collection Words for Music Perhaps in 1932; it is one of W. B. Yeats’s later poems and part of a series of poems featuring ‘Crazy Jane’. Before we offer some words of analysis of ‘Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop’, here’s the text of the poem.

A Short Analysis of W. B. Yeats’ ‘On Being Asked for a War Poem’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘On Being Asked for a War Poem’ is a poem by W. B. Yeats (1865-1939), written in 1915 and published the following year. It’s one of Yeats’s shortest well-known poems, comprising just six lines, and sets out why Yeats chooses not to write a ‘war poem’ for publication. Before we analyse ‘On Being Asked for a War Poem’, here’s a reminder of the text of the poem.

A Summary and Analysis of W. B. Yeats’ ‘September 1913’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘September 1913’ is a poem by W. B. Yeats (1865-1939). It describes Ireland in the month of September 1913, as the title suggests, and sees Yeats lamenting the condition of Ireland at that time. Before we offer an analysis of the poem, here’s a reminder of the text of ‘September 1913’.

A Summary and Analysis of James Joyce’s ‘The Sisters’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Sisters’ is the opening story in James Joyce’s 1914 collection, Dubliners. Unlike the other stories in the collection, it is told in the first person, by a young man recalling his friendship, as a boy, with a Catholic priest. As this very brief summary of the story would suggest, there is something odd in the story being given the title ‘The Sisters’, since the two sisters are actually not the central focus of the story.