Paul Christensen's Blog - Posts Tagged "yeats"

The Wanderings Of Oisin And Other Poems by W.B. Yeats

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Oisin journeys to three islands representing feeling, combat and repose, ‘the three incompatible things man is always seeking.’

(This is also mirrored in Yeats’ three ‘Rose’ poems, ‘The Rose of the World’, ‘The Rose of Battle’ and ‘The Rose of Peace’, and on a more mundane level in the labour movement - eight hours work, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.)

I don’t like the way the rhythm changes dramatically in the third section, like the time change in an ‘80s glam rock song; it makes the poem feel unbalanced. Other than that, an incredible work for a 22 year old scribe.



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Damage Limitation: Trying to Reduce the Harm Schools Do to Children by Roland Meighan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I take it for granted that most homeschooling parents these days are nationalists who do so because they don’t want their kids being dumbed down and indoctrinated by the leftist educational establishment.

This book, then, is somewhat odd: a defence of homeschooling written by lefty-liberal types who see the school system itself as ‘fascist’, and even quote the terrorist Nelson Mandela as a moral authority!

A real curiosity.

The book has a few good quotes, e.g.:

‘They work to pass, not to know: and outraged science takes her revenge. They do pass and they don’t know…’ - Thomas Huxley

‘Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.’ - W. B. Yeats



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W.B. Yeats: A Vision, The Original 1925 Version by W.B. Yeats

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


‘A Vision’ is undoubtedly highly interesting, and sheds light on some of Yeats’ more obscure poems, but I was ultimately disappointed, being interested in the precession of the equinoxes and the Platonic Year. I guess I was hoping for a prophecy, but while Yeats has much to say about the Arian and Piscean eras, on the Aquarian he is totally silent.



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W.B. Yeats: A New Biography by A. Norman Jeffares

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I would have liked to have learned more about his interactions with O’Duffys’s fascist Blueshirts, which must have been significant as he was writing marching songs for them.

Leaving aside such omissions, the book isn’t bad for an overall impression, including his complex relation to Irish nationalism.

‘As always, Yeats yearned for a society where all classes would share in a half-mythological half-philosophical folk belief.’ p.212.

That’s supposed to be bad???



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