Hughes, Sir Galahad
I'm hoping that this webpage
will assist you in interpreting poetry
yourself, as well as learning about the Pre-Raphaelites and William
Butler Yeats's connection to them, more specifically.
In order to do all of this, you might want to know to know a little bit
about how the
webpage is set up.
Let me know if you find anything broken, and enjoy!
- The next link on the index page is a short biography of William Butler Yeats. I recommend going to this page to learn a little about the poet's background and important factors (people, movements, books, etc.) that influenced his poetry. Without knowing about the poet, interpreting his poems is quite a chore.
- The "Pre-Raphaelitism" page is your self-evident next destination. Here, you'll learn a little about the Victorian poets and painters who identify with the style of painting developed by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in the 1840s: who they were, and what tenets they believed in, at least. If you want to skip this part at first, each poem I've annotated includes a short explanation of Yeats's Pre-Raphaelite tendencies within the poem.
- If you're here for a quick fix, skip straight to the poems. Yeats published three collections before the year 1901: Crossways, The Rose, and The Wind Among the Reeds. The poems from each collection are listed on an index page for that collection. I've annotated, or partially annotated, the ones that have links. I hope to do more in the near future.
- Here's where things get tricky. I recommend reading through the poem itself a few times before you click on anything. Then, try the links within the poem. They'll bring up a new page that explains something about the linked words. For instance, in "The Rose upon the Rood of Time" (under The Rose), click on "Rood" to learn about the meaning and history of this word. You can resize these windows so that you're actually able to look at them alongside of the words of the poem. Just close these "annotation" windows when you're done with them.
- Each poem page also contains links to a short explanation of the poem, an explanation of how the poem exhibits Pre-Raphaelite tendencies, and discussion questions you might use in class or in a reading group to try and gain even more understanding of what the poem means. These also open on new pages, so that you can look at them and at the poem itself at the same time.
- And of course, I also provide a page of links, so that you can explore other people's takes on Yeats.
Let me know if you find anything broken, and enjoy!
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