"Yeats's poetry is driven by a tension between the real world in which he lives and an ideal world he imagines" - A Response by Ciarán Van Dam

Having studied Yeats's poetry, I agree completely that the contrast between the real world and an ideal world is the motivation for a large amount of his writing. I have formed this view in my study of 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree', 'September 1913', 'The Wild Swans at Coole', and 'Sailing to Byzantium'.

     At the time of writing 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree', it is clear that Yeats was struggling with the realities of life. It is implied that his life in the city is hectic and loud, and "the pavements grey" serve only to trigger his fantastical daydreaming. Yeats yearns to escape his daily life, to "arise and go now, and go to Innisfree". He envisions the island as a place of respite, and an escape from the clutches of reality. He paints a beautiful picture of his deeply desired lifestyle; there is a musical quality to the island where "the cricket sings" which contrasts hugely to the barely notable "roadway" on which Yeats finds himself. The natural, colourful beauty of Innisfree's noon, which Yeats portrays as a "purple glow", let's us relate to his struggle with his "grey" environment. While Yeats is insistent that his departure is imminent, his words ring slightly hollow. His fantasy is too idealistic, and we are left believing that he will continue to hear the island's calling "in the deep heart's core". 

     In 'September 1913', Yeats similarly displays a disgust for the world in which he finds himself; this time, however, it is directed towards society rather than his physical surroundings. At the opening of the poem, he sarcastically remarks that society has "come to sense"; they now understand their purpose in life is "to pray and save", doing both for purely selfish reasons and out of fear of what might happen otherwise. Yeats finds this idea disturbing - he cannot believe that it was "for this Edward Fitzgerald died", along with his fellow men "of a different kind". It is clear that Yeats views their deaths as the end of an era; these men and their ideals were what Yeats's idealised view of Ireland amounted to. He implies that everyone should share these same values, and he expresses remorse that these men had died in search of a better future for Ireland, only for it to amount to people adding "half pence to the pence". The real world has become unattractive to Yeats - "Romantic Ireland" has become merely an aspect of the past, and all that came with it is now "dead and gone". Yeats is left having to deal with his new lifestyle with the knowledge that his dream is "with O'Leary in the grave".

     In 'The Wild Swans at Coole', Yeats's interest in societal values has subsided somewhat in favour of his struggle with ageing. Here, he ponders the seemingly eternal life of a bevy of swans, while reflecting on his own painfully mortal life. "The nineteenth Autumn has come upon" him since he first counted the swans, and though he has changed much in those years, the swans appear to be exactly as he remembers them. The "brilliant creatures" are as they always were, "unwearied still" by the realities of life. Though "all's changed" for Yeats, the swans' "hearts have not grown old", and they are free to pursue whatever they may. Yeats, however, implies that he longs for the past and he is aware his more fruitful days are behind him. His fantasy view of the swans serves only to remind him of his own mortality, and as a result he begins to fear that the swans will leave him behind. He is aware of the reality of the situation; it is indeed possible that he will "awake some day to find they have flown away". 

     Yeats struggles with his mortality once again in 'Sailing to Byzantium'. Again, the reality of the situation he finds himself in is unappealing. He has become aware that Ireland "is no country for old men", but has instead fallen into the hands of the young, who serve only to "neglect" its various forms of "unageing intellect". As a result, Yeats retreats to his ultimate fantasy, his ideal world; Byzantium. In this Utopia, Yeats sees immortality in the form of the appreciation of art. He wishes to take on the form "of hammered gold", as he sees his body as nothing but "a dying animal" to which his heart and soul are "fastened". The image of Byzantium is almost the opposite of the world in which he currently lives, and so there is a powerful contrast between the two in the poem. He now views Ireland as a place to die, while Byzantium represents to him an everlasting life, and the knowledge of "what is past, or passing, or to come". 

     Ultimately Yeats's struggle between an ideal world and reality is what drives his poetry. These four poems in particular are the result of his perpetual longing for a better life, the descriptions of which allow for the creation of some beautiful and thought-provoking poetry.