Abstract
In “The Statues,” Yeats traces a history of civilization through a history of its forms. Focusing on the dialectic between form and formlessness, he explores a movement of forms in civilization—from the Greek sculptural practice shown by Phidias to the intangible form of the Buddha in India in the middle ages and finally to modern Ireland that represents heroic passion associated with Cuchulain. “The Statues” illustrates Yeats’s conception of the meaning of form in art as well as the history of competition between form and formlessness. By embodying the heroic actions of the Irish, which fit the statues of Greece, he hopes to illuminate the Irish dream.
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