Day 2

Poems of W.B. Yeats: The Tower Lesson Plan

Discussion of Thought Questions

  1. 1

    How do you see the trajectory of Yeats' thought develop in these three poems?

    Students should mention that the speaker goes through a number of stages, such as lament, ambivalence, feeling like an outsider, clarity, recognition of "mob" as "mad", criticism of violence, and finally, a note of hope for a better world in which the next generation can survive.

  2. 2

    Compare and contrast the "Ancestral Houses" and "My House" sections of "Meditations...". How does the speaker see his ancestors' lives and how does his own lifestyle differ?

    There are elements of beauty in the ancestral house, including the classical sculpture that Yeats values so highly elsewhere in the...

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