YEATS SUMMER SCHOOL: In no other summer school around the country is there such a close bond between the man, his work and the place as in Sligo, Prof Roy Foster told the Yeats International Summer School yesterday.
"At the end of his life he cast back to the beginning, which was here," he said. The combination of local references and visiting scholars at the school contributed an atmosphere that was unique.
Giving the opening talk at the 43rd school, Prof Foster announced that the second, and final, volume of his biography of the poet was shortly to be published. Prof Foster first began working on Yeats's biography 15 years ago.
He told students that at certain points during the past few years he had recalled those who had begun, but not completed, biographies of the poet. They included Oliver Edwards and Sean O'Faolain, as well as historian Leland Lyons, who died before he could process the enormous amount of material he had amassed.
Prof Foster paid tribute to Yeats's children, Michael and Anne, for all the help and encouragement they had given. "They were magnificent in granting access," he said, "in holding nothing back and in not interfering." Mr Michael Yeats was present at the school yesterday, as he is every year. Today he will make a presentation of his late sister's books to the library of the Institute of Technology in Sligo.
Prof Foster said that by far the most enlightening people he dealt with while researching the biography were those who had not already written about the poet. One of them was the housemaster at St Columba's school of Michael Yeats, Mr George White, who recalled the poet visiting the school to discuss his son's education. During the visit Yeats held forth, in the presence of a lady visitor, on education in general, saying that boys should learn only maths, Irish and Greek. "They should learn Irish by translating it into Greek, and Greek by translating it into Irish," he had said, to the bemusement of Mr White, who knew he did not know either language.
When the lady fervently agreed, he said: "I'm not entirely serious, you know." Prof Foster said that never, in his 15 years of working on the poet's life, was he prepared for his ability to change and move on, to adopt new ideas. The theme of the second volume is "rejuvenation," he said. "At the end he is going back to the battlegrounds of his youth.
"In some ways he's replaying the themes of the 1890s. In his relationship with Dorothy Wellesley he is trying to remake her into a Lady Gregory figure. He had a passion for patterns."
There will be 20 lectures on various aspects of the life and work of the poet and his contemporaries given during the next two weeks, starting with the director, Dr Bernard O'Donoghue, speaking on "Yeats, Love and the Middle Ages" this morning.
Some, like Prof George Bornstein from the University of Michigan, who lectures tomorrow morning on "Yeats, Pound and the Cuala Press" will deal with specific, historical aspects of the work, while others, like Prof Clair Wills from the University of London, will deal with themes with a contemporary resonance. She will speak on "Yeats and Neutrality" on Wednesday.
As well as afternoon seminars, there will be a two-week drama workshop given by Judy Friel, and evening cultural events like John McGahern reading from That They May Face the Rising Sun.