|
Poet: William Butler Yeats
Poem: Oil And Blood
Volume: The Winding Stair and Other Poems
Year: Published/Written in 1933
Poem of the Day on:
Nov 28 2003
Comment 3 of 3, added on August 10th, 2005 at 2:09 PM.
Very nice website with a lot of informative response from members
Katrina from United Kingdom
Comment 2 of 3, added on July 20th, 2005 at 10:47 PM.
ABOUT "OIL AND BLOOD" 2ND. PART
As imaginative inspired poet William Butler Yeats was a man fond of occultism and oriental culture the we have to interprete the exac meaning of "the two kind of people" he is showing to us.
If he has chosen pagan images directly like "tombs of gold and lapis lazuli", commonly called "sarcophagus", we have to point at the word "gold". In Egypt gold is the symbol of Horus and Rah (or Reh), the divine god of the sun. To say, that poet William Butler Yeats wanted to tell us that "there is a lineage of Sun. Men and women that descend of descended from the Sun. Holy blue-blooded people that "exhude miraculous odor". Today we could add: people who are very lovely, kind, brave, mannered, who are plenty of virtues. Catholic and other christians say that a saint man or woman has Jesus Christīs odour. But William Butler Yeats doesnīt point to any christian symbol in this poem. However he is talking about a kind of saint people that causes joy, happyness, welfare,, etc. for everybody in this World. They are living beyond material death, because their corpse are not rotten (many catholic saintsī corpses never got rotten). They are the "chosen ones".
They will live forever and ever.
In the second stanza we can watch that on the contrary there are many vampires. Vampires are not described only as living corpses that rise from the grave in the night to suck blood from their victims. Vampire are also exploiters, thiefs, liers, tricksters, etc. In the Bible are called "sons of Cainīs lineage". But why poet William Butler Yeats have chosen this legendary figure?
May be bacuse even old Greeks believed in "vampires", long long time ago. Itīs an ancient figure of evil men and women (vampire women were called "lamias"). And in this case, poet William Butler Yeats doesnīt point at any christian or biblical figure, too.
Ancient Egypcians believed that SETH was a devil God. So, he is the Devil for them.
Now we have the second human descendants from Mankind: The sons of Seth. To say, the sons of doom, all evil and perdition. People that cause damage, that cause death and pain. Drunken of blood that prevented them to think about their actions reasonably. They are living under the clay and are made of clay (they are simply dust material under the clay), and they are not living an own personal life, because they are living on othersīblood, if not they would die immediately. Their lives could be cut off at any moment.
May be thereīs no better image of evil people than this.
Briefly: we can see that poet William Butler Yeats although he was taught inside a christian culture he wanted to use oriental pagan images to talk about tough realities of Life, instead of christian images, as a "the other side of the coin" (a reversal). A clear product of his search of the Occult. Two kind of mem and women in constrast; men and women that live in opposition: Good vs. Evil; holy vs unholy; salvation vs doom; divine vs profane; Osiris vs Seth (or God vs Devil, if you like); virtues vs vices.
Carlos Garay del Moral
Teacher and Writer
Carlos Garay del Moral from Argentina
Comment 1 of 3, added on July 20th, 2005 at 12:22 AM.
I think that great poet William Butler Yeats is comparing two kind of human beings and their opposite ancestry. In the first stanza we can read:
In tombs of gold and lapis lazuli
Bodies of holy men and women exude
Miraculous oil, odour of violet.
We can discover a not so veiled symbolism:
Tombs of gold and lapis lazuli: the sarcophagus
were noble and rich (holy men and women) egyptian
people were buried into. Specially the faraoh, his
descendants; princes and princesses, who were
considered "divine" persons.
Exude miraculous oil: essetial and sacred
(miraculous) oil, we know that oil prevent flesh
for drying and itīs an excellent kind of balsam.
Gold, lapis lazuli, oil and perfum of violets were
considered well-known expensive goods in Egypt.
Violets grew in Afrika.
..."odour of violet." According to herbalists, the
Wild Violet represents Healing Nature, the essence o
of optimism and exploring new options. To find a
balance between caution and courageous decision
making. To be able to trust new opportunities
despite unknown outcomes, so as not to stop oneself
from experiencing Life
(watch: http://www.wildviolet.net/wv_meaning.htm)
But in onother hand we have in the second stanza:
But under heavy loads of trampled clay
Lie bodies of the vampires full of blood;
Their shrouds are bloody and their lips are wet.
We know that this kind of "people" is not holy, so
died doomed, may be because of being evil persons
during their mortal lives; vampires were mortals
that made a deal with Devil searchig for wrong "a
eternal life" (considered Lucipher their light).
Vampires then became a legend that were evil dead
bodies that had to drink human blood to maintain
thereselves "alive" by killing innocent people.
BRIEFLY:
In the first stanza holy men and women seem to be death but are alive; in the second stanza unholy people (the vampires) seem to be alive but are dead
CARLOS GARAY del MORAL
Teacher and writer
Carlos Garay del Moral from Argentina
Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, Oil And Blood, has received 3 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own. Of course you can also always discuss poems by William Butler Yeats with others on the Poetry Connection poetry forum!
|
Copyright © 2003-2008 Gunnar Bengtsson, Poetry Connection. All Rights Reserved.
Very nice website with a lot of informative response from members
Katrina from United Kingdom