Symbolism in W. B.

Yeats Poetry

Contents
A Symbolist Poet W.B. Yeats Definition of Symbol Characteristics of His Symbolism Emotional Symbols Intellectual Symbols Examples of Intellectual Symbols
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A Symbolist Poet
He was influenced by the French symbolist movement. Versification nearer to the day to day speech Passionate syntax He can put the starkest facts into the starkest words. Incorporated symbols as a means of expressing abstract and mystical ideas A poem should not merely have one meaning, but many meanings to many people of different times
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W.B. Yeats Definition of Symbol

Yeats explains symbols as follows: All sounds, all colours, all forms, either because of their preordained energies or because of long association, evoke indefinable and yet precise emotions, or, as I prefer to think, call down among us certain disembodied powers, whose footsteps over our hearts we call emotions. (33) - The Symbolism of Poetry
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Characteristics of His Symbolism

Yeats uses distinct, concrete imagery to symbolize complex ideas about the state of the modern world. Heraldic emblem Simple syntax but due to rhyme and rhythm have underlying meaning
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Emotional Symbols
No particular or logical reason For example, Heart s purple . It is symbol of throbbing life and passion and also have sexual connotation

Intellectual Symbols
This is a symbol that stands for something and its meaning is learned. Effective because they convey depths of meaning rather than just a general feeling

Examples of Intellectual Symbols

Gyre : Turning and turning in the widening gyre

Cont
Falcon and falconer : The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Cont
Second Coming : Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming!

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Cont
lion body : somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

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Cont
nodding by the fire - Impending death bending down beside the glowing bars, - Seeking warmth or comfort - The desire and need for the fiery love she once rejected. - When You are Old

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Cont
My Soul - An escapist - Spirituality My Self - One have to fight the miseries of life manly - Materialism - A Dialogue of Self and Soul

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Thank You!
Question/Answer

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