본 논문은 문자 그대로 예이츠 자신의 말인 상상의 체계를 반영하는 “나선형 계단”의 상징을 통해서 시의 의도적 구조를 연구한다. 엘리엇의 주장대로 우 리가 아는 예이츠는 그가 젊었을 때의 가능성에 의해서 정의되었던 것처럼 정의되어 야한다. 이런 접근은 예이츠의 만개한 능력을 보여주는 것으로 초기의 서정적 성공만 으로는 한계를 보일 수 있다. 이 방법은 그의 작품의 중심적 발전의 관점에서 그의 초기의 서정적 작품을 능가하는 중요성을 후기시가 얻도록 낭만적 영감을 지칭하는 시적 과정의 진전을 강조하기 위해서 필요한 관점이다

This paper studies an intentional structure of interpretation through his symbol of “the winding stair” that reflects a form of imagination that would be read, quite literally, in Yeats’s own terms. T. S. Eliot has argued that Yeats as we know him today would be as defined by his later maturity as he had been by the promise of his early work. Perceiving Yeats’s art in this manner shows a poet at full capacity, one whose legacy might have been otherwise limited by a successful early lyrical career. It was what he did to emphasize the development of the poetic process that would allude to a romantic inspiration that allowed the later prose and poetry to gain an importance that even surpassed the promise of his early lyrical work in terms of the development of poetic themes central to his work.

• Joanne Chia(English/writing instructor at Singapore University of Technology and Design. She has a Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature from NTU, Singapore.)