Yeats Practice Exam Q.. Help appreciated! (1 Viewer)

[xbroken-tearsx]

Hmm. I have this practice exam question I have to do for WB Yeats but I don't really understand it. Maybe it's easy but I've been studying for a few hours and when I read the question my mind just goes, 'I'm sorry, what?'
Here it is:

You have been asked to address an audience of senior students on the topic 'Making Meaning from Text'. Write the text of the speech which explains how your understanding of the composer's purpose affects your personal response to three of the set poems.


...How his purpose affects my personal response? Huh?

Hmm... anyway help is very much appreciated, and as soon as possible, because I want to knock over my entire first go at English study in one hit before moving on to other subjects! Thanks!

 

[Boonani]

its easy: essentially, discuss how what you've come to see as yeats' purpose in writing these poems (ie: your readings) directly affects what you have come to view as yeats' purpose. you may (and should!) have two readings of what yeats is trying to achieve, and then you explain what your view on yeats is and how it was shaped by these readings.

good luck.

 

[retrieve]

As authorial intention is largely unknown, we may nver really know what Yeats' true purpose was. We can, however, extrapolate various readings depending on the perspectivew we wish to take, ie., post-colonialist, feminist, humanist, philosophical, new critics (aesthetic), etc. Yeats did not set out to write in any or all of these framework, responders with various values and interests seek from his oeuvre their own interpretation.

 

[grovy_girl11000]

Hi,

I managed to get full marks on this question. What I basically did was talk about Yeats' purpose in regard to the 2 readings. For example: with a personal reading - how do you think the knowledge of his personal life affects your person response - ie: how you read the poem. Eg: your knowledge of his love for Maude may lead to to read the 'Wild Swans..." as a reflection of his loneliness and despondency in old age.