Ghosts are usually thought of as scary apparitions to be avoided. For William Butler Yeats, ghosts took on many forms. They were more than just myths or legends. Despite the many frauds he'd met, he still believed in ghosts and he wanted answers!
Of course, Brenda Maddox's book is not the first biography about Yeats, nor will this work be the last. He was, after all, a revered Irish poet and writer. When he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, he was recognized "for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation."
Maddox's discussion of Yeats's life, loves, passions, works, and indiscretions is direct and astonishing. She doesn't focus on his works: the poetry, plays and pamphlets that filled out his literary career. Instead, she only talks about his works in passing, as they relate directly to her discussion of relationships and other events in Yeats's life. But, she does talk about other elements of his life.
Maddox's discussion of Yeats's life, loves, passions, works, and indiscretions is direct and astonishing. She doesn't focus on his works: the poetry, plays and pamphlets that filled out his literary career. Instead, she only talks about his works in passing, as they relate directly to her discussion of relationships and other events in Yeats's life. But, she does talk about other elements of his life.
The Women in His Life
Maddox writes, "All his life Yeats fell in love easily..." There was Maud, Iseult, George, Margot, Edith, and so many others.
Unfortunately, he was not lucky in love. He moved from woman to another (after being in love with Maud Gonne for so many years). Sadly, quite a few of the women in his life seemed to share a tendency toward depression. One of the women, Margot, even attempted suicide (she jumped/fell out of an upstairs window after visiting Yeats in an erratic state). She later was committed to a mental institution.
The only woman he married was George Hyde-Lees, but he had many women on the side. He relied a great deal on her for editing, organizing, nursing him back to health, and so much more. If George used her "Automatic Script" (a way of letting the spirits speak through her) to gain his attention at the beginning of their marriage, it was not this ability that kept them together through all the years after the "Script" dried up (she said she quit because of the children).
Unfortunately, he was not lucky in love. He moved from woman to another (after being in love with Maud Gonne for so many years). Sadly, quite a few of the women in his life seemed to share a tendency toward depression. One of the women, Margot, even attempted suicide (she jumped/fell out of an upstairs window after visiting Yeats in an erratic state). She later was committed to a mental institution.
The only woman he married was George Hyde-Lees, but he had many women on the side. He relied a great deal on her for editing, organizing, nursing him back to health, and so much more. If George used her "Automatic Script" (a way of letting the spirits speak through her) to gain his attention at the beginning of their marriage, it was not this ability that kept them together through all the years after the "Script" dried up (she said she quit because of the children).
And, in the end, Yeats may have found his "real love," as Maddox suggests. But, he was so near the end of his life.
The tales of his many rendezvous with women read something like a soap opera, almost a counterbalance to the exciting drama of his ghostly encounters, and the resulting poetry. But, there was something more to those encounter. The women were also a source for poetry. They sparked his imagination; and his passion set the flow of words free to appear upon the page.
The tales of his many rendezvous with women read something like a soap opera, almost a counterbalance to the exciting drama of his ghostly encounters, and the resulting poetry. But, there was something more to those encounter. The women were also a source for poetry. They sparked his imagination; and his passion set the flow of words free to appear upon the page.
Ghostly Apparitions & Visions?
Yeats always believed in spirits. Maddox explained that it was "a legacy of childhood summers in Sligo," in the west of Ireland. There was "magic," in the tales of fairies and leprechauns. He continued to exchange stories with his sisters of: "portents, prophetic dreams, banshee cries, visions, and visitations."
Whatever ghosts once haunted Yeats—-both real or imagined—-he was able to learn from them to create those elusive words that have lasted. Yeats once said, "Out of the quarrel with others, we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves poetry."
Writing was one way Yeats escaped from the pressures around him. It helped him to maintain his sanity, when there were strains of madness in his family. He wrote in a journal entry:
"It often alarms me: it is the root of madness?... There was a time when [my writings] were threatened by it... I escaped from it all as a writer through my sense of style. Is not one's art made out of a struggle in ones soul?"
That poetry still has a hold on its readers. His words have themselves become ghostly messengers.
Whatever ghosts once haunted Yeats—-both real or imagined—-he was able to learn from them to create those elusive words that have lasted. Yeats once said, "Out of the quarrel with others, we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves poetry."
Writing was one way Yeats escaped from the pressures around him. It helped him to maintain his sanity, when there were strains of madness in his family. He wrote in a journal entry:
"It often alarms me: it is the root of madness?... There was a time when [my writings] were threatened by it... I escaped from it all as a writer through my sense of style. Is not one's art made out of a struggle in ones soul?"
That poetry still has a hold on its readers. His words have themselves become ghostly messengers.
