In order to appreciate Yeatsian poetics it is important to consider the fact that Yeats poses his own self with masks, which are represented as his poetic persona in his poetry. It is also necessary to consider that the majority of traditional Yeatsian critics have different opinions about the differences between Yeats's early and later poetry. To a larger extent, Yeatsian criticism has argued that Yeats's early poetry diffuses some index of femininity -- ornament, detail, dreaming atmosphere, and so on and lacks reality, intellect, 'masculine,' and 'salt.' And many of the critics frequently condemn it as bad poetry on the basis of the argument that it is full of feminine profusion that obscures the reality. From the traditional viewpoints, however, his poetic persona give some insights into a certain way of appreciating his early poetry. First of all, Yeats's female persona in his early poetry belongs in the literary current at the end of the 19th century. In this perspective the persona and the characters in his works of this period have some common features in pursuit of an imaginary world, such as an uncivilized, primitive or mythic world. The pursuit of the imaginary world of male characters in Yeats's early poetry parallels the real and active female persona. Most of the female persona in Yeats's early poetry have consistent and real perspectives on their reality, and are firmly founded on their world. Nashina in The Island of Statues and Niamh in The Wandering of Oisin are very active and have firm purposes. By contrast, the male characters, such as Colin, Thernot, Almintor, and Oisin, hesitate for their love and are ‘enwound' inactively by their counter-characters. The other point to consider in order to appreciate Yeats's early poetry is his treatment of female beauty. Traditional love poems deal with female beauty as a thing that passes away like any other thing in this world, and in a threatening tone argue that it should be used at its prime times. In Yeats's love poems, however, female beauty is presented as a power to fascinate and urge men to act. The attitude of these female persona and characters in his early poetry develops and makes ‘Crazy Jane' character possible in his later poetry.

• 허현숙(건국대) | Huh, Hyun Sook