D.Litt. et Phil. / While the historical theory of W. B. Yeats’s A Vision (1925) has received proportionately more scholarly attention than other aspects of the system, the deeper theoretical principles that inform it have not been discussed or analysed sufficiently. Many prominent scholars of the Yeats’s corpus have rejected the need to study the system all together, while others have provided simplified accounts of the historical theory elucidated in Book IV “The Great Year of the Ancients” and Book V “Dove or Swan”. A detailed study of A Vision’s historical theory is sorely needed, as we know little of how it operates at a deeper theoretical level. This thesis approached this lack by elucidating the theoretical foundation that Yeats’s discussion of history in “Dove or Swan” is based on. This required an analysis of Yeats’s idiosyncratic use of the ancient Greek concept of the “Great Year”. Yeats’s elucidation of the “Great Year” derives its distinction from the Automatic Script, which the system of A Vision is based on. In the process, Yeats’s treatment of the evolution of the “Great Year” from Plato through Ptolemy to modern astrologers was discussed. This required a lengthy and thorough examination of the geometry that informs A Vision’s historical system. This geometric scheme is complex and requires careful consideration, for it is easy to confuse the movement represented in each figure. This study provides illustrations that are derived from Yeats’s descriptions of diagrams and from his instructions of how to interpret the movement that occurs within them. This results in diagrammatic representations that have never been utilised and analysed to such a comprehensive extent. A by-product of providing an extensive and comprehensive account of the geometry that informs the historical theory of A Vision is the emergence of a barely discussed, but very crucial, geometric and theoretical component of the historical system, the line of interacting periods. The line of interacting periods represents each historical period and event as being constituted by the Four Faculties; Will, Creative Mind, Mask and Body of Fate. In effect, this line allows for an analysis of the historical system that incorporates not only the Faculties but other theoretical components of the system of A Vision as well, which includes the twenty-eight phases of the Great Wheel and the strife between the primary and antithetical tinctures. When “Dove or Swan” is viewed from this theoretical perspective Yeats’s discussion of history reveals itself to be an application of the system’s fundamental tenets to four thousand years of European history. It tries, in this way, to maintain the internal cohesion of the system as a whole. Every historical event, period and figure signifies the fluctuating dominance of one tincture over the other. Yeats’s emphasis on the development of European aesthetics results in a discussion of movements that seeks to reveal the primary and antithetical components at work during any given period of European art. Yeats’s selective interest in European history and art suggests that “Dove or Swan” is not a complete discussion of the people and events that shaped modern Europe. From one point of view, it represents an amateur historian’s quest to find empirical justification for a theory that he claims to have gleaned from a supernatural source. Seen from another angle “Dove or Swan” represents poet’s effort to apply metaphors, meant for poetry, to empirical historical data.

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Note: / This thesis examines the manner in which Yeats developed the dancer as a literary symbol and discusses the meanings the symbol acquired as a result of that development. There is a chapter on historical background to the dance and another on what Yeats meant by symbol. The operation of the dancer is examined in detail in the following early poems: "Who Goes with Fergus?" "The Man Who Dreamed of Faeryland" and "The Host of the Air." The development is examined in some later poems, such as "Michael Robartes and the Dancer" and others to establish the nature of the change leading toward the dancer's humanisation and toward its acquiring additional meaning because of its assocaition with other symbols, for example, tree and dragon: waht yeats called The Great Procession. "Among School Children" is examined in detail as an example of the operation of the completed symbol. [...]

This thesis proposes that Yeats found in certain conventions of the Noh drama a realization and defense of his idea of unity of culture, which his Noh-like Four Plays for Dancers illustrates. Yeats' use of recurrent imagery in the dance plays expresses his belief in a unity of culture defined and evoked by an image and stems in part from the pattern of images he discovered in the Pound-Fenollosa translations of the Noh. The imagery of the poetic text reappears in symbolic visual designs or is coordinated with music and dance in the production of the plays. The importance of the spoken word above all determined the basis of the association of arts with which Yeats characterized unity of culture and shaped his adaptation and occasional misconception of the staging techniques of the Noh. A common love of vivid, allusive words joined the audience for whom the dance plays were written. When Yeats stated that they were modelled on the audience of the Noh, his perception was colored, as usual, by his own priorities and experience.

Yeats's depiction of political violence is examined through a reading of the political poetry centred on "Easter 1916," "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen," and "Meditations in Time of Civil War," each of these bearing a title emphasizing the poem's historicality, each representing one of the violent epochs in modern Ireland. By studying the dramatized narrative persona utilized by Yeats--a persona constituting the ideological and societal contexts of the poem, and effecting, through the choice of perspective, the selection of historical materials--the particular contents of Yeats's history-making are brought into focus. Yeats was both a romantic poet uneasy with the political component of verse, and an Irish nationalist for whom these events were essential ingredients of his life's work. In these poems we find the collision of Yeats's own conflicting ideals about poetry, politics, and history; a collision which produces a complex portrayal of Irish political violence.

This study addresses the issue of William Butler Yeats' use of Upanishad philosophy in his poetry. Although many analyses of Yeats' art vis-a-vis Eastern religion exist, none offer the thesis that the poet transformed certain religious concepts for his own purpose, thereby removing those concepts from the purview of Eastern religion. Quite the contrary, many of the analyses argue a parallel between Yeats' poetry and the religious concepts.In Chapter 1 this study gives a brief overview of the problem and proposes the thesis that instead of paralleling Eastern religious concepts, Yeats transformed those concepts; such transformations result in ideas which run counter to the yogic goal as expounded in the Upanishads.Chapter 2 summarizes yogic sources which help elucidate the concepts of Upanishad thought. Also Chapter 2 introduces various the critical analyses which present inaccurate conclusions regarding Yeats' use of Eastern religion.Chapter 3 explains certain Eastern religious concepts such concepts as karma and reincarnation and asserts that the goal of the discipline of yoga is self-realization.Chapter 4 discusses the poems of Yeats' canon which have been analyzed critically in terms of Eastern religious concepts and have erroneously been considered to parallel certain Eastern concepts. This chapter argues that Yeats' transformations resulted in an art which is chiefly based on the physical level of being, whereas the goal of yogic discipline places its chief emphasis on the spiritual level of being. Also it is argued that Yeats cultivated imagination, whereas the Eastern religious devotee cultivates intuition.Chapter 5 details the critical analyses which have erroneously argued the Yeatsian parallel to Eastern religion, showing how these critics have sometimes failed to understand concepts adequately and thus have misapplied them to Yeats' art.Chapter 6 contrasts Yeats' poetry with that of Rabindranath Tagore. Yeats failed to realize Tagore's motivation when Tagore referred to God. Yeats claimed that all reference to Cod was vague and that he disliked Tagore's mysticism. This lack of understanding on Yeats' part, I suggest, further supports the thesis that Yeats' use of Eastern religion constitutes transformations which do not reflect Upanishad philosophy but instead reflect a Yeatsian version of those concepts--a version which many critics have not clearly elucidated. / Department of English

This thesis analyses the development of Yeats's image of Japan from his introduction to Japanese culture through 'Japonisme' in the mid-1880's, until the end of his life in 1939. It also surveys the sources of information that Yeats had on Japan other than the Noh drama, and shows how these sources were as important as the Noh, if not more, in defining his image of Japan as an artistic utopia. Three periods of Japanese history were of particular interest to Yeats: The early nineteenth century, in which most Japanese colour prints were produced; the Ashikaga period (1333-1573), when the Noh flourished, and Heian Japan (794-1100), an extraordinary culture which produced some of the world's greatest works of art. Images of Japanese culture from these periods combined to produce a composite, mythical vision of Japan in Yeats's imagination.