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| In Memory of WB Yeats by W.H. Auden | Summary and Question Answers |
1. What do the following phrases mean in the present poem?
Meanings of the following phrases:
a. The dead of winter: In winter everything seems to be frozen, silent and dead.
b. The airports almost deserted: Because of winter the airports also seemed to be vacant with less or no people.
c. The provinces of his body: The parts of his body
d. The squares of his mind: The parts of his mind.
e. The current of his feeling: His breathing or his heartbeat.
2. Why is WB Yeats praised a lot in the poem? give your reasons.
WB Yeats is praised a lot in the poem because he deserves that. He was one of the greatest poets of all time and has given timeless poetic treasure to all the mankind. The poet in the present poem praises WB Yeats for his great deeds for mankind and at last he requeststhe earth to receive Yeats as the guest and empties his poems on Earth for the pleasure of other people.
4. What are the images used in the poem? Illustrate them.
The poem makes effective use of the images of water, frozenness and immobility of impending Doom. Water is the quintessential symbol image for motion and change. Water images are also used to depict the negative: The seas of Pity. Frozen inside people become a potent image of failed compassion.
5. Explain the following lines with reference to the context:
You were silly like us; your gift survived it all:
The parish of rich women, physical decay,
Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
In these lines poet says that Yeats is silly like us. It was mad Ireland that caused Yeats the suffering he turned into poetry. Poetry survives and gives voice to survival in a space of isolation.
6. Paraphrase the poem in your own words.
The poet sets the poem on a cool winter day and describes the visual during the time of his death. During that time there was an inner revolt within his body and blankness in his mind.
7. What is the central idea of the poem? Write it in a few sentences.
In memory of WB yeats is all about death. After all it's an elegy, a poem written in memory of a person who has passed away. Death has a way of making people consider what it means to be alive. This poetry is about the life after death, the power of poetry and the human condition.
