Irish poet William Butler Yeats has been called the greatest poet of the twentieth century. His subject matter is compelling and frequently tackles dark aspects of human nature and history. The tone of his poems is often melancholy and sometimes disturbing. Although many of Yeats' poems are very beautiful and moving, it is also true that Yeats has a masterful way of creating tension in his poetic imagery that is thought-provoking and disturbing. The phrase "terrible beauty" is an apt description for Yeats' unique approach to poetic imagery.
For example, in "The Stolen Child," a poem about a child who goes to live with the faeries, there are depictions of beautiful images of nature that also have a forlorn quality. The sadness of the human world is depicted in a way that makes it seem somehow desirable for the child to leave this world to live among the faeries. We also understand the faeries are somewhat manipulative in trying to convince the child that their world is a better choice:
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
The intentional behavior of trying to give "unquiet dreams" to the trout, and the idea that the ferns drop "tears" into the stream, are ways of making the natural world seem like a sad place, a world "full of weeping" as the poem repeats several times. This sadness and fear linked with beauty gives the poem this quality of "terrible beauty."
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