Stylistic Analysis of William Butler Yeats’s Poem When You Are Old

【Abstract】As one of the foremost figures of the 20th century literature， William Butler Yeats has created lots of famous poems， including the poem When You Are Old， which expresses his love to Maud Gonne and his understanding of love. Stylistics provides us a new perspective to analyze and understand poems. This thesis just applies the theory of stylistics and analyzes the poem from phonological， lexical， syntactic/grammatical and semantic features. After analyzing it word by word and line by line， readers can feel the poets strong emotions more easily and profoundly.

【Key words】stylistic analysis； William Butler Yeats； poem

I. Introduction

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of the twentieth century literature. He was staunch in affirming his Irish nationality and maintained his cultural roots. In 1923， he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irishman so honored for what the Nobel Committee described as “inspired poetry， which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation”. Fellow poet Wystan Hugh Auden assigned Yeats the high praise of having written “some of the most beautiful poetry” of modern times. Yeats is a Symbolist poet and uses allusive imagery and symbolic structures throughout his career. He chooses words and assembles them so that they suggest other abstract thoughts that may seem more significant. The poem When You Are Old was written in 1893， four years after he met Maud Gonne. He fell in love with her at the first sight and proposed to her four times in his life， but she refused each proposal， even when she was frustrated in the marriage. The poem just expresses Yeats intense love to Maud Gonne through the elaborated design. As a branch of linguistics， stylistics studies style in a scientific and systematic way concerning the linguistic features of different varieties of language at different levels. It links literary criticism to linguistics and provides a new way to appreciate literary works. Using the theory of stylistic analysis can help us understand the poem more profoundly.

II. Stylistic Analysis

1. Phonological Features

Unlike other modernists preferring free verse， Yeats is a master of the traditional forms. The poem shares the pattern of iambic pentameter （V—V—V—V—V—）. And the rhyme scheme of the poem is a （sleep） b （book） b （look） a （deep）， c （grace） d （true） d （you） c （face）， e （bars） f （fled） f （overhead） e （stars）. In the fifth， ninth and twelfth lines， glad and grace， bending and beside， hid and his are alliteration. In the third， seventh and eighth lines， read and dream， one and loved， changing and face are assonance. In the fourth line， once and shadows is consonance. The application of alliteration， assonance and consonance make the poem sound beautiful. Also， Yeats like using words with diphthong， triphthong or long vowel to express strong emotions. For example， soul， glowing （[??]）， grace， face （[e?]） and eyes， beside （[a?]） are diphthongs， fire （[a??]） is triphong and read， dream （[i：]）， bars， stars （[ɑ：]） are long vowels.

2. Lexical Features

In this poem， Yeats uses lots of words to describe the appearance and behaviors of the man and his beloved one. The poet just draws a picture to convey the artistic conception rather than gives his own comments. That is to say， the diction is descriptive rather than evaluative. Also， the poet tends to use simple words. The poem has one hundred words in total. Among them， eighty words are monosyllabic， and twenty words are polysyllabic. In this way， the poem becomes catchier. And there are thirteen verbs or verbal words in this poem. Nine of them （nodding， take， read， dream， bending， murmur， fled， paced and hid） are dynamic verbs and express activities， while four of them （all of them are loved） are static verbs and express a kind of emotion.

3. Syntactic/Grammatical Features

In this poem， Yeats tends to use simple sentences. He uses a series of verbs to describe the mans beloved one. And adverbial modifiers are frequently used， such as the use of gerund （e.g. nodding by the fire） and prepositional phrase （e.g. with love false and true）. Also， different tenses are used in this poem. When describing the beloved ones behavior， the poet uses present tense to make the imaginary scene more vivid and authentic. When talking about love and the love towards the beloved one， the poet uses past tense and talks about the stories. As for the voice， all of the lines are active voice. In this way， descriptions are more lifelike and acceptable， and readers are easier to imagine the scene described in the poem. What is more， sentences in the poem are not as grammatical as those in academic writings. The poet can adapt the word order， omit some sentence elements or only use some sentence fragments to express meanings. The tolerance of non-grammatical phenomena provides the chance of creating masterpieces for the poet.

4. Semantic Features

This poem applies lots of rhetorical devices， e.g. antithesis， metaphor， personification， imagery and symbolism. The fifth to eighth lines make a comparison between the mans and other peoples love towards the beloved one and show the differences more clearly. The man loves all of the things about his beloved one， even her grey hair and wrinkle. His love is eternal and selfless. In the eighth line， the poet uses pilgrim to modify Soul. On the one hand， the sanctity and purity of the lady is just like the pilgrims that pay their respects to the god sincerely. On the other hand， her sacrifice for the national independent movement is great and holy. The use of metaphor intensifies the perfectness of the lady. In the last three lines of the poem， love is described as a human. Love can flee， pace and hide， but the man never changes his love. This reflects the toughness of the mans love skillfully. Also， there are many images in the poem， e.g. the fire and the glowing bars. They are coordinated with each other. The fire is warm and easy to make people recall the things happened before. Love can be dissolved by time. The man wants his beloved one to understand him and cherish his love. At the end of the poem， the poet uses symbols to express his firmness of love. Mountains mean toughness and tenacity， and stars mean eternity and immortality. Whenever and wherever he is， the man loves the lady so much. He gives her best wishes and wishes her to be happy forever.

III. Conclusion

The poem When You Are Old expresses Yeatss intense love to Maud Gonne profoundly and impresses readers a lot. Yeats deserves Thomas Stearns Eliots high praise， the greatest poet in contemporary era. This thesis applies the theory of stylistics and analyzes the poem from phonological， lexical， syntactic/grammatical and semantic features. After analyzing it in detail， readers can feel the poets strong emotions more easily. The poet hires several ways to rhyme， e.g. alliteration， assonance and consonance. Rhyme dramatically adds a sense of musical beauty to the poem. Also， by using words with diphthong， triphthong or long vowel， the poet conveys his strong emotions successfully. His using Anglo-Saxon words， monosyllabic words and simple sentences make the poem sound brief and delicate. In addition， the poet expresses his feelings and emotions more completely and intensely by using a series of rhetorical devices and techniques of expression accurately and properly. By reading the poem， readers can easily feel Yeats love to Maud Gonne and the sorrow that he is refused by his beloved one.

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作者简介：秦泽昊（1994.12-），女，汉族，河南郑州人，武汉大学外国语言文学学院，本科，主要研究方向：英美文学，外国语言学。