예이츠의 후기시에 나타나는 여성상은 이전의 작품에서 나타난 여성과는 확연한 차이를 보인다. 이 여인상은 이상적이고 영웅적인 모드 곤이나 고귀하고 귀적적인 레이디 그레고리, 순정적이거나 희생적인 하이드-리즈 같은 모습을 전혀 찾아 볼 수 없다. 예이츠는 후기시에서 미친 제인 같은 젊지도 아름답지도 고귀하지도 않는 가상의 인물을 통해 완전한 사랑과 “존재의 합일”을 추구한다.

이 논문은 윌리엄 버틀러 예이츠의 「조각상」 , 「델픽 오라클을 위한 소식」 , 그리고 「긴다리 파리」 의 순서에 대한 중요성을 탐구하려한다. 본 연구자는 이 세 시의 순서는 예이츠의 위대한 예술에 대한 견해를 반영한다고 주장한다. 즉 예이츠는 위대한 예술은 비극으로 시작해서 기쁨 더 정확히 표현하자면 섹스로 끝난다고 쓴 적이 있다. 예이츠는 예술을 신혼 첫날밤의 기쁨 같은 존재에 비유하기도 했다. 「조각상」은 비극적인 시이고 「델픽 오라클을 위한 소식」은 섹스의 기쁨을 노래한 시인데 이 기쁨은 예이츠에게는 천국이요 유토피아의 세계이다. 이 두 시 다음에 「긴다리 파리」가 위치한 점을 눈여겨보아야 하는데 이 시 역시 비극과 섹스라는 같은 주제를 다루어 앞서 제시된 같은 주제를 확장하고 강화하려는 의도를 보여준다. 시를 통해 기쁨을 추구하려는 예이츠의 의도는 그의 정치적인 목적과 깊은 연관이 있다. 즉 아일랜드 국민을 유토피아로 이끄는 것이다. 여기서 시인이 꿈꾸는 유토피아는 고대 그리스보다 더 위대한 문명의 요람으로 세계에 우뚝 설 미래의 아일랜드이다.

예이츠는 후기에 들어 아일랜드 현실에 대한 인식과 관심이 높아지고 자신의 시에 아일랜드 정치에 대한 관심을 나타내고 있다. 본 연구의 목적은 예이츠가 자신의 후기시에서 당시 아일랜드 정치상황에 관해 어떠한 시각으로 접근하고 있는 지를 파악하는 데 있다. 이 연구는 이를 위해 예이츠의 후기시 가운데「1913년 9월」,「1916년 부활절」,「재림」,「비잔티움 항행」를 살피고 그의 마지막 시편 가운데 하나인「사람과 메아리」를 고찰하고자 한다. 예이츠는 아일랜드의 정치에 관해 찬미와 동시에 비난과 회의를 제시하는 이중적인 태도를 취하고 있다.

본 논문은 엑프라시스에 이론에 근거하여, 예이츠가 어떻게 자신의 후기시에 그리스와 비잔티움의 조각의 미학과 다양한 형식을 녹여내는지 논의한다. 예이츠는 상반의 시학에 조각적 특징을 사용하는데, 모순을 찾고 모순을 해결하기 위한 여러 가지 생각과 방법을 제시하고, 예술과 영원성에 대한 개념을 만든다. 예술적 형식을 통해서 예이츠는 시에서 인생과 역사의 모순을 화합시킴으로써 존재의 통일을 달성한다.

월터페이터가 1869년에 쓴 『르네상스 시대 : 예술과 시의 연구』에 레오나르도 다빈치 파트에 있는 모나리자 문장은 모더니즘과 모던 영미시 형성에 많은 영향을 끼쳤으며 예이츠 시 또한 예외가 아니다. 이 평론집에 나타난 페이터의 사상은 예이츠의 후기시 특히 가이어스 (“The Gyres”)와 청금석 부조 (“Lapis Lazuli”)에서 그 울림이 느껴진다. 모나리자 문장은 페이터의 역사관과 사회관을 반영하는데 그 정수는 역사와 세상은 늘 변한다는 것이다. 위에 언급한 예이츠의 두 시에는 모나리자 문장을 연상케 하는 표현들이 숨어 있을 뿐만 아니라 근본적으로 비슷한 역사관을 토로한다. 즉 역사는 늘 변한다는 관념이다. 그래서 두 시는 공히 지금 어렵다고 슬퍼하지 말라고. 말한다. 왜냐하면 곧 좋은 시절이 다시 올 것을 믿으니까 말이다.

예이츠는 플라톤 사상과 자신의 사상을 시의 이미지와 상징으로 중첩시 키거나 병치하여 그의 사상에 보편성을 부여하고 구체화한다. 그는 초기시기에 예술의 개념, 미의 개념, 다이몬(Daimon) 등과 같은 여러 가지 개념들을 플라톤에게서 차용하 여 자신만의 독창적인 개념으로 발전시켰다. 그러나 그는 후기시기에 플라톤의 형식의 이론, 혹은 이데아 사상, 영혼불멸사상, 우르(Ur.)의 순환과 방추와 같은 이미지를 사 용하여 자신의 윤회사상, 사랑의 필연성, 관용, 역사의 순환 등과 같은 자신의 사상을 명확하게 확립하여, 결국 궁극적 실재의 추구의 시스템을 완성한다. 그래서 그는 초기 의 다양한 종교단체의 활동으로 획득된 자신의 사상체계를 그리스 철학, 특히 플라톤 철학에 중첩과 대조를 통해서 세계적 시인으로써 갖춰야할 인류의 보편적 지혜인 궁극적 실재의 완성을 성취했다고 선언한다

The purpose of this study is to trace Yeats’s efforts toward an ultimate reconciliation of the contrary forces of human experience as they are reflected in his later poetry written Beyond Byzantium, and to explore the relationship between existential awareness and artistic vitality. Though Yeats reached Byzantium in 1927, from The Wanderings of Oisin to “Byzantium” he yearned for stasis and release, and thus sought the solace to be found in never-never lands ranging from the woods of Arcady and Tir-nan-Oge to the golden boughs of Byzantium. Yet a disquieted romantic and an unaccommodated man, he returned to the living world of unfinished men and the dross of their mortal pain. The world of the “dying generations,” for all its corruption and impermanence, is the place where Yeats, after much sailing, finally dropped anchor. Yeats ran his course between the extremities implicit in “Perfection of the life, or of the work,” and by the end of his career he took his stand with the claims of his art and the passions that make it possible. “Tragic Gaiety,” the hero’s rising above evil fortune and circumstance, is at once the matrix and the pinnacle of his final, transforming vision, and Yeats’s most significant legacy to our “tired” and “hysterical” age. Thus Yeats’s great achievement lies in his exposition of the artist’s will to transcend phenomenal limitations, and in the symbolic identification of creator and created. “Bitter and Gay,” the dominant notes of most of the poetry of Yeats’s last years, lay the tragic scene beyond Byzantium, and it was there that he finally reached a reconciliation with “Time.” Not transcendence, however, but the simple triumph of trying to be a total man was Yeats’s final accomplishment. After all the anguish and the judgements, at the close of his life he repented nothing, and could cry “Rejoice” because it is only through the despair born of tragedy that we can achieve true gaiety and unity in empathy with humanity. That was the joyful voice of a man who knew how to create out of destruction. This wholeness of vision which Yeats finally attained is the prime concern of this study.

Symbolism is central in Yeats’s work. His symbols can be thought of as many sided crystals, which “grow from solutions of traditions, from the dissolved thoughts of many minds”(Henn 146). They are the context of meaning, allowing for multiple interpretations and variations within themselves. Yeats believes the perceived difference between the language of poetry and that of ordinary speech to be arbitrary, arguing, “we should write out our thoughts in as nearly as possible the language we thought them in.” After 1900 Yeats’s style changed radically as he worked toward simplicity, reducing the use of adjectives, and aiming for a harmony of metaphor, symbol, and diction more natural, vigorous, and sincere. The most complex facet of Yeats’s poetry is perhaps its linguistic subtlety and nondiscursiveness. He does not tell the reader what to think, but aims to evoke emotion or feelings through particularly resonant imagery. This article aims to argue that symbols in Yeats are not fixed at an unique point, but ubiquitous at any point, and therefore are infinite. The first part of the article examines, in the process of proving infinity in symbol, picturesque images in later poems, which are analyzed from the point of view of Benjamin’s language theory. The second part addresses the argument that Yeats intends to reveal, through picturesque images, not material objects but emotion and feelings, or the mental life via images. The last part argues that symbols in Yeats’s poetry are infinite, as reflects the infinitude of language as his medium.

The title of this essay seems to suggest the name of one particular philosophy in world history. When we speak of ‘stoicism,’ it is the name of universal philosophy that is a part of the education of every self-consciousness. While it is generally admitted that Yeats is a very great poet indeed, it is not easy enough to decide in what ‘greatness’ consists. At first, I wondered whether remained anything of to say about Yeats by the many aspects and contexts in which Yeats could be considered. I came to choose the topic-stoic stature and wisdom. I found myself that these two were so closely connected as to form one problem I must treat as a whole. Hegel's idea of thought is as follows, when I refer to thought, the stage of self-consciousness reaches here is the stage of thought. In other words, thought also means the liberty of self-consciousness. Thus freedom and will become identified. Stoic liberty represents this identity of thought and will. In the first place, I limit myself to the relationship between thought and will. Because Yeats who have toiled with language knows that the autonomy of the will confer the value that “hallows” human life. In the second throughout later poetry-especially, ｢The Municipal Gallery Revisited｣ Yeats’s society is a small community of autonomous spirits. In fact it is through the will to preserve the individual in the deed and make it meaningful. Based upon a mutual greatness and of a mutual glory, the later poems about persons attempts to create a community of autonomous individuals―“the individual who is a world.” Yeats’s humanity results in art. According to Eliot, ‘the wisdom is essential in making the poetry, and it is necessary to apprehend it as poetry in order to profit by it as wisdom.’ The wisdom of a great poet is concealed in his work. But it is through his discipline and stoic of the will and mind that Yeats could sing a song celebrating human endeavour.

W.B. Yeats is a poet of constant changes. Death is characterized by the nature of fixing, fixing things as they are. Yeats fights against the forces of death. “The Tower” is an attempt to transcend the death of body by heightening the spiritual. The body is destined to death, but its spirit strives to overcome the power of death. Similarly, in “Sailing to Byzantium,” which precedes “The Tower” manifests the posturing of the poet who is in pursuit of a means to transcend death. The belief in transcending death is not a product of a moment but the consequence of a long quest of changing his poetic self. The image of gold in “Sailing to Byzantium” has a two-fold meaning. One is the meaning of the permanence of gold itself, and the other, the meaning of a form, or the existence of form. The gold is hammered into a form. The process of forging a form is “learning.” Yeats wishes to be changed by learning, and wishes to take a form through the process of changes. That Yeats could stand firm in face of death, comes from Yeats’s firm belief in changes. That belief could disarm the forces of death. He shows a way to overcome in a concrete way. “Under Ben Bulben” represents a third area, where life and death are one and the same. This is similar to the form of permanence in the other poem. When he says, “Horsemen, pass by!” he may want to reach a third stage, in which life and death do not exist. Yeats’s eye is cast upward, beyond the land of life and death; Upward, where the value of self could survive the test of time for good.

This article touches upon Yeats’s relationship to the spiritual traditions of the world in the 1930's. During this period when he was immersed in Eastern, especially Indian philosophies, Yeats affirmed his desire to pursue the marriage of East and West for political and psychological reasons. An analysis of the poems from A Full Moon in March (1935) reveals that Yeats believes that the idea of the East-West marriage works as an antidote to the persistent political problems of Ireland -- the battle between Catholics and Protestants -- which again haunted Ireland after de Valera became the president of Ireland in 1932. Yeats’s Supernatural Songs is a testimony to his ideal of wholeness which he expresses through his pernona-hermit Ribh. Yeats’s attempt to reconcile the conflicting forces of East and West (evolved from Catholics and Protestants) reflects the poet’s Romantic ideals so that the East and the West (the colonized and the colonizer) co-exist harmoniously by discarding one’s own weaknesses and accepting the other’s merits. His life-long efforts to pursue the political unity of his country and the world also show his practical character in that he is always thinking about the possibility of maximizing the potential of each component of a group. We, however, also see that Yeats is not completely free from his Protestant prejudice even when he strongly urges the unity between two opposing political parties by making a subtle connection between a religious hermit and Parnell. It is no wonder that Supernatural Songs also has poems which express Yeats’s skepticism about the possibility of conveying the idea of oneness to the everyday world, as well as his resistance to the mystical concept of oneness.