“This inexplicable war”. William Butler Yeats and his ‘Silence’ on the Great War

Abstract

In occasione del 150° anniversario della nascita di W. B. Yeats e del centenario della Prima Guerra Mondiale, l’articolo si propone di studiare la risposta del poeta alla tragedia degli anni 1914-1918 analizzando la sua limitata produzione letteraria sull’evento. Mentre “On Being Asked for a War Poem” è un breve manifesto del suo distacco, poesie successive dedicate all’amico Robert Gregory, caduto in battaglia, documentano un coinvolgimento maggiore, ma un atteggiamento mutevole nei confronti di una guerra implicata nella complessa questione Anglo-Irlandese. La reticenza di Yeats può anche essere letta come una reazione alla crescente violenza della politica, da cui egli, quale personaggio pubblico con un’inclinazione per la pace, voleva distanziarsi.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-34

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