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.

죽음과 그 이후의 삶에 대한 관심은 수세기동안 지속되어 왔다. 예이츠는 죽음 이후의 삶에 대해 『환상록』(A Vision)에서 밝힌 자신의 관점을 후기 시에 투영하고 있다. 이 연구의 목적은 예이츠 후기 시에 나타난 죽음 이후의 삶의 변모를 탐색하는 데 있다. 예이츠는 죽음 이후의 영혼의 과정을 4개의 원리(the Husk, the Passionate Body, the Spirit, and the Celestial Body)로 규정하고 6과정의 단계를 거쳐 변모한다고 주장한다. 자신의 창의적인 시를 통해 죽음 이후의 영혼의 환생과 생존에 대한 명상은 예이츠의 삶에 대한 강렬한 갈망이 잠복되어 있는 것으로 보인다.

예이츠의 후기시를 이해함에 있어 여성이미지는 매우 중요한 요소이다. 시인은 대표적인 여성이미지로서 모드 곤과 크레이지 제인을 제시하여 아일랜드인의 개인적, 역사적, 민족적 정체성에 대한 상징으로 삼아왔다. 특히 상류계층의 양심적 지 식인의 대표인 초기시의 모드 곤과 달리 후기시에서 큰 비중을 차지한 창녀 크레이지 제인의 상징적 역할은, 궁극적으로 시인이 거칠고 조악하지만 적나라한 삶의 이중성을 가감 없이 수용하는 아일랜드 민중의 지혜에 대한 신뢰를 드러낸다. 그러나 예이츠는 여기에 그치지 않고 모드 곤과 크레이지 제인의 한계를 극복하고 동시에 그들의 상징 성을 통합하는 여성이미지를 꾸준히 제시하고자 노력하는 데 바로 댄서이미지가 그것 이다. 예이츠에게서 댄서란 앞서 두 여인의 이미지가 상징하는 양심적 지성과 민중적 삶의 지혜를 연결하는 동시에 각각이 지니는 한계를 극복하는 이미지로서 예이츠 후 기시의 궁극적인 여성이미지이면서 민족적 구원을 약속하는 상징이다.

The paper is to study the poetic self in Yeats’s later poetry. Yeats dramatizes internal conflicts of the self fighting with the other self. He has not created a single unified image of character in his poetry. He has tried to consciously express the polarity of the self by projecting dual characteristics of being through the poetic self. The poetic self in his poetry is the self who is transformed and developed through the conflict accepting the reality of human nature. Looking over the whole of human life and its prevailing desolation, the poetic self tries to find the proper response to life and suffering in terms of “tragic joy.” The poetic self created by Yeats has got around the conflict through a positive response to life in all its tragic aspects.

히니의 시는 고향 떠남, 방랑, 귀향이라는 삼부구조로 되어있다. 1991년 작품인 환영보기로부터 1996년 영혼측정기 2001년 전기 등불그리고 그의 마지 막 작품인 2010년 인간 고리에 있는 서정시들에서 작가는 우리가 이미 알고 있고 우리의 눈으로 파악할 수 있는 것들이 과연 견고한 것인가 그리고 영혼은 어디에 깃 드는가라는 의문을 제기하고 있다. 그리고 이 시들에서 히니의 관심은 초기 시의 그의 정신적 중심이었던 고향과 가족으로 회귀하는 모습을 보여준다. 그런데 여기서 중심이 라하면 북아일랜드의 시골 고향마을, 그의 가족과 부모님 이 밖에도 영적 세계추구등 의 아일랜드 문학 전통과 단테 버질등의 고대 그리스 로마의 전통까지를 의미한다.

예이츠의 시세계, 특히 초기시에는 낭만주의와 상징주의가 자리잡고 있으며 그 중심에는 ‘자연’이 자리해 있다. 예이츠에게 있어 자연은 ‘자연에 대한 동경과 모사’와 ‘자연과의 대립 및 의식의 우위’, 즉 자연 친화적 세계와 자연부정의 세계라는 진폭 안에서 인식되었으며 그의 시는 이를 형상화하거나 극복하려는 긴장의 궤적을 보이고 있다고 할 수 있다. 이 글에서는 이같은 예이츠의 자연에 대한 인식과 시세계를 한 축으로 놓고 한국 근대시에 나타난 자연을 살펴보고자 한다. 이를 위해 한국근대시의 완성에 가장 큰 역할을 한 대표적인 시인인 정지용의 시세계에 나타난 자연을 먼저 검토하였다. 그리고 현재 왕성히 활동하고 있는 시인들의 시세계에 나타나 자연을 각각 고찰하였다.

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.

This paper aims at presenting the postcolonial aspects of William Butler Yeats’s poetry. The term ‘postcolonial’ means not only ‘the anti-colonial’ but ‘the hybridity’. Leaning on the recent studies such as those of Edward Said, Jahan Ramazani and Homi Bhabha on Yeats and Irish literature, this study investigates the multiple aspects of Yeats as a postcolonial poet. First of all in this paper, Yeats’s complex reaction to the two consecutive wars in Irish history is examined thoroughly. The two wars accelerate the process of decolonization in Ireland, and after 1920s the country enters an at least partially postcolonial state by succeeding in reaching home rule. Yeats writes two important poems about the wars, “Meditations in Time of Civil War” and “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen.” Because of his familial background as an Anglo-Irish Protestant, the poet is unable to wholly support either side of the conflicts. Whether in the war of the colonized against the colonizer (the Anglo-Irish war), or in the battle between the colonized themselves (Republicans vs. Free State supporters), his position is far from complete support for either party. Just as the speaker of “Meditations in Time of Civil War” feels sympathy for the fighting troops or ponders whether or not to join them, it is not certain as to which side he would lend his allegiance. This lack of certainty and the divided loyalties is another sign of his conflict in the postcolonial position. His dual loyalties are well represented in terms of the features of postcoloniality, namely, hybridity and ambivalence. During the colonial state and the partially postcolonial state, Yeats’s involvement with Irish politics had never been static or straightforward or comfortable. His writings more often represent conflicted responses to the issues of Irish nationalism and British colonialism. Therefore, his body of work, his political beliefs and his involvement in the anti-colonial struggle require the serious consideration for such concepts as resistance, tension, ambivalence, and hybridity. Therefore, my main contention is that the tensions and contradictions inherent in Yeats’s later poetry can best be explored in the context of his postcoloniality. Yeats’s contradictory and uncertain attitudes and stances cannot simply be defined by leaning to ready-made political labels.

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.

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.