Analysis the poem To a Shade

 Analysis the poem "To a Shade"-- 

"To A Shade" (1913) is one of Yeats's most remarkable political poems and was published in the volume called "Responsibilities". It expresses Yeats's disgust against the Irish people who ill-treated Parnell, an Irish nationalist political leader and the founder of the Irish Parliamentary Party. His betrayal was the talk of the whole Ireland around that time. This poem commemorates Charles Stewart Parnell, a radical Protestant leader, inarguably the most influential Irish political of the 19th century. He founded the Irish Parliamentary Party, and led various movements against British colonialism, inside and outside the parliament, most significant of which were the Home rule movement, and the land reform agitation. However, his adulterous affair with Katherine O'Shea, wife of Captain William O'Shea, which came to light when the husband sought divorce, shocked both England and the Catholic dominated Ireland. 

Most of the members of his party shunned him, which brought a sudden downfall of his illustrious political career in December 1890. He died on October 6, 1891, merely a little more than a three months of his marriage with Katherine. However, he continued to be remembered as the greatest Irish leader of his era. Analysis The poem "To a Shade" is addressed to the ghost of the Irish leader Parnell and deals with the same theme of the mob majority's dullness and vulgarity. It is one of Yeats's most effective political poems where the note of epigrammatic scorn is sounded strongly showing his disgust with the way the Irish people treated Parnell. The poem has only three stanzas of unequal length. The first stanza has 9 lines, the second 1o, while the third contains 7 lines. The first Stanza concerns Parnell, the second stanza remembers Hugh Lane, while the third moves back to Parnell. The opening stanza of the poem is addressed to the ghost of Parnell who is imagined as revisiting the town of Dublin with a yearning to look upon the monument that has been erected in Parnell's honour or to so the ghostly splendour of eighteenth century houses along the quavs Yeats urges the ghost of Parnell not to linger on in Dublin, even though the occasion of his visit is the fact that a monument has been erected in his honour because the people of the town who had betrayed him before his death are still 'at their old tricks'. The second stanza pays a tribute to Hugh Lane who was a man of passionate revolutionary zeal and emotional fervour equivalent of Parnell. Here, Yeats, referring to Hugh Lane controversy, reserves the highest praise for Lane who proposed to bring for the people of Dublin a gift in the form of a collection of French paintings if a proper art gallery could be provided for them. Rather than honouring him for his generous and genuine offer, abuses were hurled upon him by Dubliners. They came from a group of people who were incited by the newspaper-owner William Murphy, who was an enemy of Parnell earlier. Having given the example of Hugh Lane to prove the ingratitude of Dubliners, the last stanza sounds off the opening image of Parnell's memory with an appeal to the ghost of Parnell to return to its grave in the Glasnevin cemetery in north Dublin where Parnell was buried. Yeats asks the ghost to gather the cover provided by the earth around its head 'till the dust stops your ear' so that it may not hear what the ungrateful Dubliners would be saying all this while. The ghost, indeed, need not stay on because Parnell had already suffered enough of sorrow before he dies. "To a Shade" compares well with another poem written in the year titled "September 1913". In both poems, Yeats attacks the self-serving nature of the Dublin middle class, mercantile and selfish, with no sensitivity to the sacrifices of the great leaders of the Irish nationalist movement. In September 19 3, while disparaging the present Irish people, he exalts the memory of John O'Leary, a 19th century nationalist and member of the Irish Repuulican Brotherhood, who was arrested in Britain for his involvement in the anti-colonial activities: 138 GPH Book Romantic Ireland is dead and gone It's with O'Leary in the grave "To a Shade" begins in the manner of a talk, a style that Yeats had mastered; it gave him great possibilities to unravel the antithesis and contraries running through the speaker's mind. In a 1913 letter to his father, he wrote: "I have tried to make my work convincing with a speech so natural and dramatic that the hearer would feel the presence of a man thinking and feeling." The opening line contains mild accents, and a caesura, which creates a rhythmic break in speech, to help the speaker express a feeling of dejection and suppressed anger. The parenthesis in the third line is a colloquial speech (I wonder if the builder has been paid).

Yeats associates the memory of Parnell with another major nationalist figure from the 19th century, Hugh Lane, who sought to ontribute to Ireland through his art, as Parnell did through his political octivism. The painter was Yeats's hero because for the poet, the cultural revival of Ireland was critical for its independence from the colonial mle. Like Parnell, Lane would have engendered great thoughts and sweet emotions in the future generations of his country. Lane worked so that a gallery of contemporary art could be established in Dublin. He wanted to put for exhibition some of his impressionistic paintings, but his efforts were thwarted and he was not allowed permission to put them in the city gallery. The poet singled out William Martin Murphy, the owner of the newspaper, The Irish Independent as the sort of people who defamed a national hero like Lane, and the kind of people who brought disgrace to Parnell. Therefore, he appropriate snubs Murphy as: An old foul mouth that had slandered you had set The pack upon him The form of the poem sustains its theme. It is through alliteration such as "grey gulls" and "salt breath out of the sea" that the poet conveys concrete imageries. Assonance is also used to similar effects. For example, "whether to look upon your monument", here the 'o' sound is repeated in musical pattern. The poet uses a simile to convey the great contribution of Irish heroes like Hugh Lane to the Irish society: Sweeter emotion, working in their veins Like gentle blood, has been driven from the place, The simile "like gentle blood" communicates how the cultural revival augmented by artists like Lane transformed the very character of Irish future generation by instilling true values in them. The rhyme and rhythm of the poem is rather irregular. The first two stanzas follow a set rhyme scheme, but the third is completely uneven. An irregular rhythmic pattern is used to suggest the tone of the Poem, which is cynical, angry and even bitter. It almost forces the Teader to pause and think about the ingratitude of the Dubliners towards their national heroes.