William Butler Yeats And Flickr

William Butler Yeats and Flickr an ethnographic approach prepared by Arthur Hall as coursework for the MSc in E-learning at the University of Edinburgh

W B Yeats: four poses

Introduction to Yeats
In the picture that follows there are two seats
On the left one, imagine if you will, Yeats himself seated
On the right one, all that Yeats carried intellectually as background to his poetic work piled upon that seat
The cultures, traditions and myths of Ireland, Greece, Rome and the Byzantine empire
The horror of the potato blight and the consequent mass emigration, living in the folk memory
His concept of poetry; to be sung as by the bards of antiquity; his founding of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin
An Ireland struggling to free itself from the Cromwellian yolk – by violence if necessary
His own confused Anglo-Irish roots and his strange, imposing appearance

...and now to flickr photos and Yeats‘ poetry
http://www.flickr.com/groups/literaryreference/discuss/72157594169912321 /
http://www.poetry-archive.com/y/yeats_w_b.html

Introduction
The approach I adopted was to link three concepts in this small project:
Firstly, my study of Yeats with my 13th class for the German Abitur
Secondly, to look at the interplay between the visual and poetic text
Finally, to offer my basic comments as my first ethnographic attempt

to start the ball rolling; from mquest - 41 months ago http://www.flickr.com/photos/mquest/sets/72157594401381511
Choose your companions from the best; Who draws a bucket with the rest soon topples down the hill.

highlighted by the picture
The closeness of childhood companions
The intensity they bring to their friendship
The unconsciousness of the significance of this instinctive choice
Rapt attention
The predominance of the foreground in childhood friendships
The ability to shut out peripheral vision

not touched by the picture
Think alone; don‘t follow the crowd
Think where this may lead
Pride comes before a fall

mquest again; also 41 months ago
O but there is wisdom In what the sages said; But stretch that body for a while And lay down that head Till I have told the sages Where man is comforted.

Focuses on physical warmth and proximity
Relaxes the body
Shows closeness in loving relationships
The isolation from others within a relationship

The wisdom of sages
The laying down of the head

mquest again; once again 41 months ago
No expectation fails there, No pleasing habit ends, No man grows old, no girl grows cold, But friends walk by friends.

Pre-pubescent simplicity
Lack of expectation
Daily continuity
No coquetry
Friends not taken for granted

The unendingness of pleasing habits
No growing old

Örgdög Peter; 5 months ago http://www.flickr.com/photos/pityke/
I have spread my dreams under your feet Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

The blurred nature of dreams
Leaves spread like a carpet beneath people
I (represented by nature) have spread my dreams
Figurative for leaves?

Treading softly

mquest; once again 41 months ago
People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.

Science representing logic and philosophy?
Rational exposition represented by a concrete invention?

People
Reliance on logic and philosophy
Starving the best part of the mind

Bluepeony; 41 months ago http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluepeony/
A young man in the dark am I, But a wild old man in the light, That can make a cat laugh, or Can tough by mother wit Things hid in their marrow bones From time long passed away. from The Wild Old Wicked Man

Youthful feeling
Wild man
Elderly guitarist – exercise of ‘mother wit‘
Time passing between the two figures

Making a cat laugh
Hid in their marrow bones

Lynn Morag; 41 months ago http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnmorag/
'Put off that mask of burning gold With emerald eyes.' 'O no, my dear, you make so bold "To find if hearts be wild and wise, And yet not cold.' 'I would but find what's there to find, Love or deceit.' 'It was the mask engaged your mind, And after set your heart to beat, Not what's behind.' 'But lest you are my enemy, I must enquire.' 'O no, my dear, let all that be; What matter, so there is but fire In you, in me?'"

Mask of burning gold
What‘s behind the mask
Mask (masquerade) hides the unknown
friend or enemy

The underlying dialogue
Love or deceit
Fire in you or me

Lynn Morag; also 41 months ago
"These are the clouds about the fallen sun, The majesty that shuts his burning eye: The weak lay hand on what the strong has done, Till that be tumbled that was lifted high And discord follow upon unison, And all things at one common level lie. And therefore, friend, if your great race were run And these things came, So much the more thereby Have you made greatness your companion, Although it be for children that you sigh: These are the clouds about the fallen sun, The majesty that shuts his burning eye."

The reversal of up and down / high and low through reflection
All things at one common level
Clouds about the sun
Majesty that shuts the
burning eye

The weak and the strong
Discord
Greatness as companion
Sighing for children

Lynn Morag; still 41 months ago
"I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray, I hear it in the deep heart's core."

Lake water lapping
Low sounds by the shore
Person out of view standing
Image of deep heart‘s core

Getting up and going
Grey pavements

dnzwoman; 41 months ago http://www.flickr.com/photos/78179407@N00/
"What they undertook to do They brought to pass; All things hang like a drop of dew Upon a blade of grass."

Hanging like a frop of dew
Blade of grass

What was undertaken
What happened

Up the Banner; also posted 41 months ago http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikal/sets/405914/
Easter, 1916 Poem lyrics of Easter, 1916
I have met them at close of day Coming with vivid faces From counter or desk among grey Eighteenth-century houses. I have passed with a nod of the head Or polite meaningless words, Or have lingered awhile and said Polite meaningless words, And thought before I had done Of a mocking tale or a gibe To please a companion Around the fire at the club, Being certain that they and I But lived where motley is worn: All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.

Vivid face
thought
The greyness
The meaningless of words
A terrible beauty created

Counter, desk and houses
Nod of the head
Meaningless words
Group of people
Fire at the club and motley

Musicmuse_ca; 41 months ago http://www.flickr.com/photos/42304632@N00/
The Wheel Through winter-time we call on spring, And through the spring on summer call And when abounding hedges ring Declare that winter's best of all; And after that there s nothing good Because the spring-time has not come -- Nor know that what disturbs our blood Is but its longing for the tomb.

The wheel of time
Echoes of Leonardo da Vinci
The cycle of the seasons
The limitations of mortality
The feeling of age

The spring time that will not come
The disturbance of longing for the tomb

Legends2k; 5 months ago http://www.flickr.com/photos/legends2k/
That is no country for old men. The young In one another’s arms, birds in the trees —Those dying generations—at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unageing intellect. ~ Sailing To Byzantium

No country for the old
Dying generations
Commendation of the created, born and death

Young in one another‘s arms
Birds in trees
Salmon falls, mackerel crowded seas
Sensual music
Monuments of unageing intellect

Marcin; 41 months ago: “ A great idea Mike.“ http://www.flickr.com/photos/sankos/
"tread softly because you tread on my dreams" (He wishes for the cloths of heaven)

Foot and treading
dreams

It‘s all there!

mquest; once more 41 months ago
The Meditation Of The Old Fisherman YOU waves, though you dance by my feet like children at play, Though you glow and you glance, though you purr and you dart; In the Junes that were warmer than these are, the waves were more gay, When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart. The herring are not in the tides as they were of old; My sorrow! for many a creak gave the creel in the-cart That carried the take to Sligo town to be sold, When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart. And ah, you proud maiden, you are not so fair when his oar Is heard on the water, as they were, the proud and apart, Who paced in the eve by the nets on the pebbly shore, When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart.

When I was a boy with never a crack in my heart

Waves
Children at play
The tides
The cart
Sligo
Maiden
Nets on the pebbly shore

...and finally my flickr offering today
Dance there upon the shore; What need have you to care For wind or water's roar?
William Butler Yeats To a Child Dancing in the Wind

The innocence of childhood symbolized by a cloudless sky
Child dancing
Breakers in the wind
Sea and shore

The last stanza of Yeats‘ ‘Under Ben Bulben‘
Under bare Ben Bulben’s head In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid. An ancestor was rector there Long years ago, a church stands near, By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase; On limestone quarried near the spot By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye On life, on death. Horseman, pass by!

Yeats‘ own epitaph

William Butler Yeats And Flickr

by Waldorf Oberberg on Nov 06, 2009

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William Butler Yeats And Flickr — Presentation Transcript