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Riddled with light: Metaphor in the poetry of W. B. Yeats
Abstract
"Riddled with Light: Metaphor in the Poetry of W. B. Yeats" studies Yeats's use of metaphor throughout the body of his poetry. Based on the premise that metaphor is of paramount importance to the writing of poetry, that it is not merely a peripheral concern hardly worth critical attention, the study defines metaphor according to the current theories of Jakobson, Ricoeur, Burke, and Derrida, among others. The study analyzes the types of metaphors Yeats uses while tracing the impact of specific metaphors on a poem's language, rhythm, metrical and grammatical structure, and form. Individual chapters are devoted to the conceptual metaphors that unify Yeats's work, among them the metaphors of anima bruta; dissolution; the wandering hero; the tower; and art. Chapter One defines the broad scope of metaphor, including defamiliarization, selection and combination, and metaphorical rhythm, prosody, and grammar. Chapter Two unifies the early poems by the conceptual metaphors of the wandering hero, Paradise as an imaginative island, eternal beauty, and escape as embrace. Chapter Three considers the conflict and reconcilement of the dual nature of humanity. Chapter Four examines poems that illustrate metapoetical concepts, and Chapter Five focuses upon architectural and tower metaphors. Chapter Six analyzes the metaphorical plan which dissolves antinomies. Poems discussed in these chapters include "Adam's Curse," "The Scholars," "Sailing to Byzantium," "Leda and the Swan," "The Song of the Happy Shepherd," "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "The Stolen Child," "To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time," "The Cold Heaven," "Solomon and the Witch," "The Cat and the Moon," "The Wild Swans at Coole," "Among School Children," "Sweet Dancer," "The Grey Rock," "The Magi," "The Dolls," "The Statues," "The Gyres," "Coole Park, 1929," "Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931," "The Tower," "The Black Tower," "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen," "Byzantium," "A Dialogue of Self and Soul," "Meru," "Ribh Considers Christian Love Insufficient," and "The Circus Animals' Desertion."
Subject Area
Modern literature|British and Irish literature
Recommended Citation
Sanders, Mark Emil, "Riddled with light: Metaphor in the poetry of W. B. Yeats" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9019582.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9019582