Analyzing W.B. Yeats Selected Poetry Through Feminist Epistemology: A Reassessment

Abstract

W.B. Yeats stands out as one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century. His symbolic poetry and his political and philosophical ideas are all prominently reflected in his work. During his lifetime, he was deeply influenced by a few remarkable women who made significant contributions to his poetic development and played a pivotal role in shaping his personality. Yeats's poems chosen for this study offer a profound insight into the predicament of women within various socio-cultural and economic contexts. This analysis will explore how Yeats projected female voices through multiple images and symbols in poems such as 'A Prayer for My Daughter,' 'Among School Children,' and 'Leda and the Swan.' While Maud Gonne is widely recognized as a central figure in Yeats's love poems, it's essential to acknowledge that she wasn't the sole woman who influenced the artist's evolution. Others, like Lady Gregory, Olivia Shakespeare, and George Hyde-Lees, the wife of W.B. Yeats, played significant roles in the later phase of his life, particularly in developing his philosophical treatise, "A Vision." In his final poems, Yeats attempted to convey his ultimate understanding of love, emphasizing its perfection in the unbroken relationship between the body and the mind. Works like 'Among School Children,' 'Leda and the Swan,' 'The Second Coming,' 'Sailing to Byzantium,' 'A Man Young and Old,' and many other universally acclaimed poems were inspired by his complex relationships with Maud Gonne and others.