윌리엄 블레이크는 􋺷아하니아의 서􋺸를 우주가 창조된 후에 신들의 판테 온이 형성되어가는 과정을 신화 형식으로 노래한다. 􋺷아하니아의 서􋺸는 􋺷유리젠의 서􋺸 와 􋺷로스의 서􋺸의 속편으로 이 두 작품에서 노래하지 않은 블레이크의 창조적 신화와 여성의 상징성을 구체적으로 묘사한다. 유리젠과 푸존은 질서와 파괴, 분노와 희생을 상징하는 신의 양면성을 보여주고, 유리젠과 아하니아는 남성과 여성의 역할뿐만 아니 라 남성과 여성 사이의 비극적 사랑의 전형을 세밀하게 드러낸다. 현대인들은 이러한 창조적 신화와 여성에 관한 블레이크의 시를 감상하면서 상상력의 다양성과 현실 세 계와 내세 사이를 오가며 물질세계가 아닌 정신세계의 중요성을 자각할 수 있다.

예이츠는 신화를 상상과 현실을 이어주고 혼연일체가 되게 해주는 창조적인 매개체로 사용하였다. 그는 신화를 통해 예술과 인생, 자연과 초자연 등을 일체화 시켰다. 예이츠는 그의 시에서 아일랜드 토속 신화, 그리스 로마 신화, 성서 등을 사용하여 문학이 제공할 수 있는 상상력을 극대화하여 현실성을 부여하려 하였다.

The Two Kings, based on the myths of Edain in the ancient pagan Ireland, is Yeats’s long autobiographical narrative poem. This poem expresses not only the poet’s private love story but also his deep concern in the national affairs with realistic consciousness of responsibility. Therefore, in spite of its mysteriousness it shows that Yeats has traveled far into the actual world since his earlier narrative poems. In this poem Yeats adopted only the main part of the original story and changed its plot and reversed its ending on purpose. He reconstructed the original story and recreated it as a “universal” private mythos through imaginative embellishment and creative modification. Furthermore, by clothing each mythical character with multi-roles and -symbols, he succeeded in making the poem a piece of work with both individuality and universality. Through the symbolical behaviors of the characters, Yeats states his firm conviction that a man’s life should be determined by his own free will, and that the lovers’ happiness should dwell in their earthly life, not in their union after death. And the poet asserts that nothing is more important than the reliance and morality between human beings for our true life and happy love. In addition, the poet contends that a leader of a nation must deliver his subjects from their chronic oppression and poverty.

The mythic world of William Butler Yeats is a composite whole of Christian, Celtic, Greek, and Roman myths as well as of Irish folklore. Under the influence of Nietzsche, Yeats introduces the form of drama into his mythical world, and discovers Cathleen in an attempt to enhance national culture and patriotism. Yeats also appropriates the thought of Plato, Plotinus, Heraclitus, Blake, Swedenborg, and Boehm, and channels their ideas into his own theory of representation. In this context, The Countess Cathleen has been understood as a play in which the gyres turn into a sphere, and the antinomies are resolved; where the contradictiories, through the very intensity of their opposition, call upon the unity which transcends them. The myths of redemption and natural love represent the binary opposition of good and evil, and Cathleen, who represents the good, sacrifices herself to control the evil and is rewarded for it. To conclude, The Countess Cathleen is a beautiful lyric poem in that Cathleen symbolizes Ireland. In the dramatic atmosphere of the final lines, she arrives at a moment of revelation, of passionate perception.