Universal Human Nature: Mortality and Transience in "Leda and the Swan," "Easter 1916," and Other Poems Sapfira Milman 12th Grade

The reality and concern of human nature and experience is articulated through the universal engagement and timeless literary appeal of William Butler Yeats’ poetry. His poems -‘Easter 1916’, ‘When you are old’ and ‘Leda and the Swan’ - serve as innovative explorations into human desire, transience and the deluging tension between mortality and permanence, creation and destruction. Generated through Yeats’ complex interplay of context, uniting literary devices and textual integrity, his exploration of universal human concerns remains ongoing and relevant to an audience’s expectations.

Drawing upon pertinent historical elements, Yeats’ poetry reveals the complexities of human experience in demonstrating that creation and destruction are inherently linked concepts that underlie social progress. In ‘Easter, 1916’, Yeats explores this duality by expressing his ambivalence surrounding the aftermath of the Irish Easter Rising. Through the turmoil in repetition of ‘changed utterly’, the stability and permanence Yeats yearns is illustrated as inevitably fleeting.Critic, Fearghal McGarry stated that- “When people read this poem, they tend to focus more on the ‘beauty’ than the ‘terrible’ and it becomes a kind of euphemism. The poem poses...