Abstract
William Butler Yeats has been always attracted to mythology and its affinities with poetic creation. Besides, nature has played an influential role in his art. Benefiting from archetypal approach, this paper tries to cast light on Yeats’s definition of soul’s eternity and poetic self. Poet’s quest and his creative art are reflected by a set of nature symbols like swan. Through confrontation with nature, examining it as a source of ideas, motifs, and myths, Yeats sheds light on his interior state of self to create art. For him, art is a means of self-realization. It is concluded that his poetic contemplations on the inevitable changes of life, reflected in the macrocosm of nature, offer both the writer and reader a fuller vision of reality.
Highlights
William Butler Yeats has been always attracted to mythology and its affinities with poetic creation
This paper shows how Yeats’s swan and nature iconography transcend time because they are transmuted into archetypal images that are the symbolic projections of mankind’s desire to eternalize the experience of beauty
In “The Wild Swans at Coole,” Yeats articulates his thirst for eternity through archetypal images
Summary
William Butler Yeats has been always attracted to mythology and its affinities with poetic creation. Asserting Eternity through Art Yeats who ardently aspires to “translate his intellectual [and archetypal] symbols into outward and visible signs” publishes his collection of lyric poetry The Wild Swans at Coole in 1919 (MacNeice 108, 129) and round the home of the Gregorys he builds his mythology. To restore the balance of time that is lost in the collapsed community of de-religious modernism, Yeats calls for images of eternity in this poem.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
