Episode 5: The Wild Swans at Coole by W. B. Yeats

Join us in experiencing W. B. Yeats's striking images and evocative sounds in The Wild Swans at Coole. We compare the 1917 and 1919 editions of this collection of poems. And we revel in the mastery of fit between form and content throughout. This is a book that absolutely rewards close reading! For that reason, we dive into the details of how the Irish Nobel laureate handles prominent themes, such as aging and love, as well as his subtler, intensifying focus on politics and war. Since we discuss certain poems at length, they are included in the notes below: "The Wild Swans at Coole", "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death", "The Fisherman", and "Tom O'Roughley".

What a pleasure to also hear from two experts on Yeats. The episode begins with Bernard O'Donoghue reading of "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death". He is a highly acclaimed poet, Emeritus Fellow at Wadham College, Oxford University, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Later, he provides an extended reflection on how this collection of poems fits within Yeats's larger body of writings. We are also delighted to hear from Dr. Lauren Arrington, who is a Professor of English at Maynooth University and a director of the Yeats International Summer School: check it out! She highlights Yeats's tricky - even devious - use of personae, and shows how a single word in his poems may brim with significance.

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