W.
B. Yeats Views
on the Language Question
[...] I am no Nationalist,
except in Ireland for
passing reasons; State
and Nation are the work
of the intellect, and
when you consider what
comes before and after
them they are, as Victor
Hugo said of something
or other, not worth the
blade of grass God gives
for the nest of the linnet. |
(Unpubl.;
rep. in Essays and
Introductions, p.526
[end]; quoted by Herbert
Read, in What Yeats
Believed, review
of Essays and Introductions, Listener, 9 March,
1961.)
|
W.
B. Yeats: Boston Pilot
(1890)
Whenever an Irish
writer has strayed away
from Irish themes and
Irish feelings, in almost
all cases he has done
no more than make alms
for oblivion. There is
no great literature without
nationality, and no great
nationality without literature.
(Remarks
from Browning
[a review], in Boston Pilot,
22 Feb. 1890; rep. in
Letters to the New
Island, NY 1934, pp.103-04;
also in John Frayne, ed.,
Uncollected Prose,
1970, Vol. I, p.104.)
[ top
]
W.
B. Yeats, Letter to United
Ireland (1892)
Can we not build
up a national tradition,
a national literature,
which shall be none the
less Irish for in spirit
for being English in Language?
Can we not keep the continuity
of the nations life
not be doing what Dr.
Hyde has practically pronounced
impossible [i.e., reviving
the Irish language] but
by translating or re-telling
in English, which shall
have an indefinable Irish
quality of rhythm and
style, all that is best
of the ancient literature.
(Letter
to United Ireland,
17 Dec. 1892; rep. in
John P. Frayne, Uncollected
Prose, Vol. I, 1970,
p.57; in answer to Douglas
Hydes call for the
‘de-anglicisation
of Ireland - i.e.,
the full revival of the
Irish language.)
[ top
]
W.
B. Yeats, Hopes
and Fears for Irish Literature
(1892)
[L]iterature must
be the expression of a
conviction, and be the
garment of noble emotion,
and not an end in itself. (Hopes
and Fears for Irish Literature,
in United Irishman, 15 Oct. 1892; rep.
in John Frayne, ed., Uncollected
Prose, 1970, Vol.
I.)
Here
in Ireland [...w]e are living
in a young age, full of
hope and promise - a young
age which has only just
begun to make its literature.
[...] We have the limitations
of dawn. They [the English
and French] have the limitations
of sunset [...] Can we
but learn a little of
their skill, and a little
of their devotion to form,
a little of their hatred
of the commonplace and
banal, we may make all
these restless energies
of ours alike the inspiration
and the theme of a new
and wonderful literature. (Hopes
and Fears for Irish Literature,
[1892], in Frayne, ed., Uncollected
Prose, 1970, Vol.
I.)
[Cf., England
is old and her poets must
scrape up the crumbs of
an almost finished banquet,
but Ireland has still
full tables. (Boston
Pilot, 23 April 1892;
Frayne, op. cit.)]
I well remembered the
irritated silence that
fell upon a noted gathering
of the younger English
imaginative writers once,
when I tried to explain
a philosophy of poetry
in which I was profoundly
interested, and to show
the dependence, as I conceived
it, of all great art and
literature upon conviction
and upon heroic life. (Hopes
and Fears for Irish Literature,
[1892], in Frayne, ed., Uncollected
Prose, 1970, Vol.
I.)
[ top
]
W.
B. Yeats, Nationality
and Literature
(1893)
There is a distinct
school of Irish literature,
which we must foster and
protect, and its foundation
is sunk in the legend
lore of the people and
in the National history.
The literature of Greece
and India [273] had just
such a foundation, and
as we, like the Greeks
and the Indians, are an
idealistic people, this
foundation is fixed in
legend rather than in
history.
We must not imitate
the writers of any other
country, we must study
them constantly and learn
from them the secret of
their greatness. Only
by the study of great
models can we acquire
style, and this, St. Beuf
[sic] says, is the only
thing in literature which
is immortal. [...]
(Nationality
and Literature,
a lecture of 19 May; reported
in United Ireland,
27 May, 1893; rep. in
Frayne, ed., Uncollected Prose,
1970, Vol. I.)
[ top
]
W.
B. Yeats:
General Introduction
for My Work (1937)
[...] I am no Nationalist,
except in Ireland for
passing reasons; State
and Nation are the work
of the intellect, and
when you consider what
comes before and after
them they are, as Victor
Hugo said of something
or other, not worth the
blade of grass God gives
for the nest of the linnet.
(Unpubl.;
rep. in Essays and
Introductions, p.526
[end]; quoted by Herbert
Read, in What Yeats
Believed, review
of Essays and Introductions,
Listener, 9 March,
1961.)
|