Instruction
Using as many poems by Yeats as you deem necessary and relying primarily od Eliot's "The Waste Land", discuss each poets exploration of the changing values, mores, attitudes of early twentieth century people. Do not forget Yeats' infatuation with Fascism and Mussolini as potentially corrective measures for the decline of the modern world. Yeats' concern seems to be the encroachment of loberal democratic values into society and the potentially devastating and demoralizing impact this will have on standards and values, especially from a culture perspective. Likewise, Eliot explores changing sensibilities. In "The Waste Land", he addesses moral or spritual waste land that is the modern landscape. Relying heavily on the vegative myth of the Fisher King, Eliot portrays a vast, parched, sterile land where all is still-born. Whereas Yeats frets over "the baseborn products of base beds," the rise and enfranchisement of the rabble that will enforce a leveling of taste and culture, which would efface all that is valuable in civilization. Remember that it is mandatory to use quotations freely to support your ideas and discussion. * using the books "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot and "Yeats Poetry, Drama, and Prose" (A Norton Critical Edition).