Anthony Elio Essays (2143 words) - Literature, Poetry, Arts

Anthony Elio Faubel ENC1102 19 April 2017 Word Count: 2,133 Looking at Symbols of W. B. Yeats W. B. Yeats has been regarded as a great symbolic poet. Arthur Symons dedicated his book "The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1919)" to W. B. Yeats and called him "the chief representative of that movement in our country". The Symbolist movement began in France. Its high Priest was Stephane Mallaseme. Yeats has already much in common with the symbolists. Both aimed at something elusive and intangible. Both were subjective, alike in method and natural mode of thought. In Yeats own words, "a symbol is the possible expression of some invisible essence, a transparent lamp about a spiritual flame - - - -." In this essay we discussed the various symbols which are used by W. B. Yeats in his poetry. W. B. Yeats is one of the foremost poets in English literature even today. He was considered to be one of the most important symbolists of the 20th century. He was totally influenced by the French movement of the 19th century. He was a dreamer and visionary, who were fascinated by folk-lor e, ballad and superstitions of the Irish peasantry. Yeats poems are fully conversant with the Irish background, the Irish mythologies etc. Yeats has tried to bring back the "simplicity" and "all togetherness" of the earlier ages and blend it with the modern ideas of good and evil. Almost all his poems deal with ancient Ireland or employ ancient mythology. In the early stage of his poetic career, he believed in the theory of "art for life's sake." But in the nineties, he became the advocate of "art for art's sake." Under the influence of French symbolists and English Aesthetes, he started to write "pure poetry", poetry from which all the exterior decorations had been done away with. In the last stage, Yeats tried to reconcile art with life. He said that, "literature must be flooded with the passion and beliefs of ancient times; otherwise it is a mere chronicle."Yeats believed that "literature is always personal, always one man's vision of the world, one man's experiences". The keynot e of Yeats poetry is the sustained and continuous development of his art and genius. To understand Yeat's poetry one has to be familiar with his interests in magic, occultism, theosophy and the complex symbolism which keeps changing from poem to poem. W. B. Yeats (1865 -1939) has been called "the chief representative" of the symbolist movement in English literature. He was a symbolist from the beginning to the end of his career. The term symbol is applied only to a word or phrase that signifies an object or event which in its turn signifies something or has a range of reference beyond itself. Symbolism is a coherent system composed of a number of symbolic elements, symbolic use of objects such as the rose, peacock, eagle etc. It is a practice of representing object and ideas by symbols or of giving things a symbolic character and meaning. It is also applied to the 19th century movement in literature and art of France, a revolt against realism. Symbolists of this era tried to sugge st life through the use of symbols and images. Among the leaders of this movement were Bardclaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine who influenced the movements of impressionism and imagism. Symbolism, for the first time became a conscious movement in France. It avoids direct expression and seeks by means of imagery and fancy to endow poetic material with some hidden spiritual or intellectual significance. Under the influence of French symbolists, poets like Yeats and Eliot make extensive use of symbolism to communicate their vision and sensations, often too complex and intricate to be conveyed in any other way. Such use of symbolism often results in ambiguity and obscurity. Yeats was inclined towards symbolism, in the very doctrine of symbolism had a deep influence upon Yeats. But Yeats tried to bring Mallarme's theory of symbolist absolution back to the world of action and event to make the outer world its province. But the same uncompromising theory the world for life's sake, underline its pu rpose "words alone are certain good", he echoes Mallarme in one of his earliest poems, and the same principle dominated