Irish Escape Artists/Escape Poets

This week's readings show a new side to Irish literature. "Pot of Broth" examined the Irish human condition, "Cathleen Ni Houlihan" called for aspiration towards the Irish legacy, and "Playboy of the Western World" suggested the need for a reimagination of the Irish identity. Yeats' "Stolen Child", "Lake Isle of Innisfree", "Irish Airman Forsees His Death", and Joyce's "Araby", however, all put forward the idea of simply trying to withdraw from the perpetuity of cyclical chaos and conflict which seem to be inherent to Irish nationalism.

James Joyce's "Araby" portrays an Ireland which seems to get in the way of the Irish. A boy trying to get a gift for his love - a pure pursuit - is delayed several times. First, the aunt says "I'm afraid you may have to put aside your bazaar for this night of Our Lord", then the father provides the following reason for delay "The people are in bed and after their first sleep now", and finally, after the boy decides to set out, the father once again tries to delay him by reciting poetry to him. These three delays serve as synecdochies for the classically Irish concerns of religion, family, and national tradition. The Irish Concerns as barriers, along with details such as the "chanting of street-singers, who sang a... ballad about the troubles in our native land", serve to show an Irish people seemingly mismatched to the results of its own Irishness. This results in a frustrated Irish people "burned with anguish and anger."

In "An Irish Airman Forsees His Death" Yeats shows a certain level of apathy towards the Irish condition: "Those that I fight I do not hate Those that I guard I do not love" The poem also features a strong sense of hopelessness "No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before" This sad figure seeks to rise above - literally - the meaningless and depressing reality of Ireland which he sees. He manages to physically rise above, but his ultimate hope for escape is that of death: "I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death." We saw a similar longing for death in "Cathleen", but the death the for which the Airman hopes is markedly different from the one Michael is moving towards. While the rebels in "Cathleen" are fueled by a longing to enter the immortal national tradition by their sacrifice, the Airman is expecting, even counting on, a meaningless death; one which will the Irish myth will forgo, thus effecting a permanent removal from the national Irish narrative.

In "The Stolen Child" Yeats uses another somewhat bizarre and unexpected image to show a longing for escape from the narrative of the bloody Irish epic: the image of a child being kidnapped by faeries. Several times in the poem he repeats the refrain: "Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand." Yeats here makes it clear that he seeks withdrawal from a world "full of troubles". He yearns to answer the magical call to a more care-free life of restful quietness, and jubilant celebration.

In "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" Yeats suggests a way to escape the tumultuous Irish society. The poem outlines the adoption of a Thoreauvian life of voluntary isolation and self sufficiency. Yeats is most likely not genuinely suggesting that all Irishmen take on hermitage, however, he is saying something about the relation between Irish society, and the peace of the Ireland. In the poem, Yeats suggests that when the elements of tempestuous Irish society are removed, then Ireland will begin to afford her serenity and beauty to the Irish people. Which, is perhaps the desire at the core of all Irishmen: "I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it deep in the heart's core."