Ane1

The cyclical in the poetry of W.B Yeats. The Irish Wiliam Butler Yeats, born in 1865 and considered as one of the ma or poets of the !"th century is the author I chose in order to ha#e an insi$ht of his comple% #ision of the &orld. Yeats had a cyclical #ision of life and human history, de#eloped in his &or' A Vision, that I found in three of his poems. Throu$h a close readin$ of them, I am $oin$ to e%plain Yeats( usa$e of different symbols and his ability to rene& and mer$e classic myths and pa$anism &ith )hristian reli$ion, usin$ them in a modern and uni*ue &ay &hich ma'e him, in my #ie&, a modernist poet. William Butler Yeats presents this cyclic sense of life throu$h symbols li'e the returnin$ ma$ical s&ans, the continually turnin$ $yres or the passin$ seasons in a natural landscape. In all of them, &e find a ma$ical atmosphere used to reinforce the importance of these cycles, &hich are cosmic and escape human control. In these cycles, a dialectic of life and death, mortality and immortality, humanity and di#ine, hope and despair is present in order to pro#ide the reader &ith a complete #ision of the Yeats( approach to the &orld from his poetic and personal maturity. The &or's I &ill analy+e in this essay are William Butler Yeats( poems ,-eda and the .&an/, /The Wild .&ans at )oole/ and ,The .econd )omin$/. The three of them belon$ to different poem boo's and therefore, to distinct sta$es of his poetic de#elopment. The first t&o are thematically different but share the principal symbol of the s&an, e#en if this symbol must be interpreted in distinct &ays in each &or'. ,-eda and the .&an/and ,The .econd )omin$/ are symbolic poems in &hich the notion the poet had of human history bein$ formed by different cycles that lasted t&o thousand years is present. The )hristian era is ust another cycle in the human history(s continuum, but it is described as an entire &heel in order to hi$hli$ht the prolon$ed duration of each one of these cycles. In ,-eda and the .&an/, the annunciation of Ancient 0reece and 1ome(s historic cycle presented by Yeats, lasted until the )hristian era. The )hristian era &as, accordin$ to the poet, t&o thousand years lon$ as &ell and its end is presented in ,The .econd )omin$/, in &hich &e can also find the annunciation of a ne& era, pro#idin$ the reader &ith a clear insi$ht of the cyclic in these

Ane! poems. The importance of the cyclic is also present in his poemThe Wild .&ans at )oole/, throu$h the s&ans( arri#al and departure to )oole(s la'e in the same season throu$hout nineteen years. Alon$ &ith the presence of the cyclic in Yeats( poems, I am $oin$ to also analy+e the symbolism present in the three of them &ith the aim of e%plainin$ ho& the application of mytholo$ic symbols and ima$ery to modern times and his apocalyptic #ision of the future ma'e William Butler Yeats a modernist poet. ,The Wild .&ans at )oole/ is the first poem of Yeats collection of poems The Wild Swans at Coole213145. The poem is composed by a re$ular stan+a form. The stan+a is formed by fi#e or si% lines, &ritten in iambic meter 2unstressed syllables follo&ed by stressed syllables5, &ith the first and third lines in tetrameter, the second, fourth, and si%th lines in trimeter and the fifth in pentameter, li'e this, the pattern of stressed syllables in each stan+a is 676757. The rhyme scheme in each stan+a is AB)B88. Accordin$ to William 9(8onnel, it belon$s to the third period of his poetics, ,The :e& Thou$hts/ &hich &ent from 1315 to 13!12It &as &ritten in 1315, &hen he turned fifty and published in 13145. The poet &rote this poem after the last re ection of his lo#e ;aud 0onne< , The poem &as be$un shortly after Yeats( return from =rance in autumn 1316, durin$ &hich he proposed to ;aud 0onne for the last time and &as a$ain refused. At a$e of fifty>one he &as contemplatin$ the prospect of ne#er marryin$ and ha#in$ children./2?ethica, 565. This prospect of a solitary future, re ected by the &oman he lo#ed, is probably the cause of the melancholic and reflecti#e tone of the poem, in &hich the repetition of ;aud 0onne(s re ection could be symboli+ed throu$h the cycle of life and death that the beautiful s&ans that appear and fade a&ay represent. Yeats &rote this poem inspired by the house and $round &here -ady 0re$ory, an Irish dramatist, fol'lorist, co>founder of the Abbey theater and of the Irish -iterary Theatre, used to in#ite Irish -iterary 1e#i#al authors. As a conse*uence of this, )oole par' became a meetin$ place for the Irish &riters and e#en a symbolic location for some of them. William Butler Yeats &as a re$ular $uest at )oole par', &here he stayed for lon$ periods of time, since -ady 0re$ory &anted him to be in a place &here he could focus on his &ritin$, and )oole(s par' &as a perfect en#ironment for that due

Ane7 to its *uietness and beauty. The modernity of ,The Wild .&ans at )oole/ lies in his praise of the beauty that Irish landscape has, described as if it &ere part of Yeats( self. Yeats spo'e for Ireland throu$h his descriptions of the landscape and nature as a mirror of his o&n feelin$s and reflections about life<,The trees are in their autumn beauty,@ The &oodland paths are dry,/21>!5. The autumn is the season in &hich Yeats described nature and the symbol of the period of his life he &as $oin$ throu$h. The poet &rote,The Wild .&ans at )oole/ from the perspecti#e of a man &ho &as already mature and the melancholic tone that &e can find in it is caused by his consciousness about the passin$ of the time and the fact that his youth &as $one. And alon$ &ith this loss of youth, his dreams and lo#e for ;aud, a &oman he lo#ed for most of his life, &ho married the Irish patriot Aohn ;acBride after re ectin$ Yeats. The poets( melancholy is #ery clearly present in the poem since he use no symbols to encrypt it < ,And no& my heart is sore/2165. Bis pain can be noticed as &ell in the reference the poet made to the beautiful s&ans, &hich, in my point of #ie&, constitute a &ay the poet found to represent the possibility of lo#e, dreams and youth that end up disappearin$. Yeats described them as beautiful, brilliant and as if ,their hearts ha#e not $ro& old/ 2!15, as creatures that are abo#e all the limits that time creates. In spite of this, after readin$ the last #erses of the poem, &e reali+e that those mysterious and mar#elous s&ans #anish in some point. This metaphoric disappearance could be interpreted as that lo#er(s lo#e also end up disappearin$<By &hat la'eCs ed$e or pool@8eli$ht menCs eyes, &hen I a&a'e someday@To find they ha#e flo&n a&ayD 2!8>7"5. Autumn is the perfect season of the year and maturity the best a$e in the poet(s life to ma'e a reflection about his life, surrounded by the beautiful Irish landscape that could be compared to a mirror of his o&n life< ,Ender the 9ctober t&ili$ht the &ater@ ;irrors a still s'yF/27>65. This u%taposition that Yeats ma'es in the first stan+a of the poem bet&een the motionless and still, &hich can be interpreted as a symbol of death and the mo#ement and flo& as a symbol of the passin$ of the time and life< /Epon the brimmin$ &ater amon$ the stones@Are nine and fifty s&ans/25>65. As &e can notice in these first lines &here the binary of life and death is presented,

Ane6 there is a stron$ contrast bet&een the trees, flo&in$ &ater and beautiful s&ans, all of them symbols of #itality, and the dry &oodland paths, stones or mirror representin$ the lifeless. The introduction of the s&ans in the poem is mystified throu$h an atmosphere created by t&ili$ht and its reflection in the &ater, &hich functions li'e a mirror and pro#ides the reader &ith a disconcertin$ and beautiful literary ima$e. The s&ans are presented as sublime creatures &hich ha#e characteristics of di#ine, sacred, immortal bein$s &hich seem eternally youn$ to the poet, &ho described them as creatures that don(t $ro& old< /clamorous &in$s/2115,/brilliant

creatures/21!5,/The bell>beat of their &in$s abo#e my head,@Trod &ith a li$hter tread/214>185/Their heart ha#e not $ro&n old/2!!5, ,8eli$ht men(s eyes/2!35. The mythic sub ect of the s&an is used by Yeats follo&in$ not only classic but also )eltic tradition, &here the s&an &as considered a di#ine creature. The poet mentioned fifty>nine s&ans, a #ery concrete number of them that contributes to create a ma$ical, eni$matic halo around them, ma'in$ the s&ans(s description mysterious or ma$ical and e#en related to the occult, carefully studied by Yeats in A Vision and by 0eor$e ;ills Barper in Yeats and the Occult. 8espite bein$ more superficially treated in his poems, throu$h them, the reader understands that the ma$ical has a #ital importance in Yeats( &or's< ,W.B. Bad to create for himself an ima$inati#e belief that included, not only his o&n #ersion of 0od, =reedom, and Immortality, but esoteric doctrines and ma$ical practices./2;ills, !65. )ontrastin$ly, in ,The Wild .&ans at )oole/ the poetic #oice sho&s a clear consciousness of his o&n a$in$ and humanity</The nineteenth Autumn has come upon me@.ince I first made my count/24>85. :ineteen years had passed since William Butler Yeats( first #isit to )oole, a #ery si$nificant place for the poet, &here he spent lon$ periods of time because it &as an inspirational location &here the beauty of the Irish landscape &as appreciable. Yeats consciousness of his temporality and mortality, the irreco#erable youth that had already passed in his life, also called ,memento mori/ is present in ,The Wild .&ans at )oole/. The fact that the poet &as almost t&enty years older ma'e the poem(s tone melancholic, opposin$ the poet(s &eariness to the s&ans, &hich are</En&earied still, lo#er by lo#er,/2135 and &hich still ha#e future possibilities of lo#e and

Ane5 con*uest, unli'e the poet himself, &ho thou$ht he &as condemned to solitude and $radual decay< ,?assion or con*uest, &ander &here they &ill,@Attend upon them still/2!7>!65. Throu$hout nineteen years, the s&ans 'ept returnin$ to )oole(s la'e as Yeats himself, but &hile the poet &as $ro&in$ old, the s&ans al&ays seemed youn$ and beautiful and this $a#e them a mystic character of di#ine, ma$ical bein$s that Yeats admired and en#ied at the same time. :e#ertheless, their final disappearance left the poet alone and are a reminder of the ephemerality of life, since e#en the cyclically returnin$ s&ans could not return someday or Yeats may not be there to see them. Bis life(s cycle, as the s&ans( cycle &ould e#entually come to an end someday. The poet seems to pursue eternity, e#en if it is impossible to obtain for a human bein$. This dialectic of eternity and mortality, desire and reality is or$ani+ed in an harmonic &ay throu$h the s&ans cyclical lea#in$ and returnin$ until the time &hen they &ould not return is the &ay Yeats has of describin$ the cycle of life and human history as &ell. Throu$h his poem, the poet represents the indi#idual &ho as an indi#idual s&an a$es and dies, &hile the s&ans, li'e human'ind continue to e%ist. The relationship of the s&an &ith the cyclical is also present in Yeats( poem , -eda and the .&an/, a poem &ritten in 13!7 &hich belon$s to Yeats( poem collection boo' The Tower213!85. )oncernin$ its formal proprieties, it is a traditional sonnet formed by fourteen lines in iambic pentameter. The separate structure of the poem is ?etrarchan since it is composed by an octa#e and a final se%tet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB )8)8 G=0G=0. Yeats chose the form of the sonnet, an e%ceptional form in his poetry, in order to ma'e his poem contrast &ith the classical lo#e sonnets, in &hich lo#e &as al&ays ideali+ed and platonic. In the classical lo#e sonnets, &omen &ere not ,sta$$erin$/2!5 ,,helpless/265, &ith ,terrified #a$ue fin$ers/255 or ,.o mastered by the brute blood in the air,/2175. This use of a classical meter re#olutionarily chan$in$ the male and female roles, made this poem contro#ersial and modern. ,-eda and the .&an/ is not set in Ireland or in )oole(s ?ar'. There is no definition of the scenery, the only clue the reader has to locate this poem is that it ta'es place in -eda(s room but the settin$ of the poem is mythical, since the action occurs in a mystified dar' place. This #a$ueness of the spatial

Ane6 description is a form to dra& the reader(s attention to the action and the importance and conse*uences of it for an entire ci#ili+ation, or in this case, for t&o, the Ancient 0ree' and 1oman. ,-eda and The .&an/ is the introductory poem to the ,8o#e or .&an/ section of A Vision, &here the poet de#elops his cyclical theory of history< ,I ima$ine the annunciation that founded 0reece as made to -eda, rememberin$ that they sho&ed in a .partan Temple, strun$ up to the roof as a holy relic, and unhatched e$$s of hersFand that from one of her e$$s came -o#e and the other War./2Yeats, !685. Yeats describes the annunciation made to -eda in A Vision as the ,the 1st ?hase/ of an entire era, the era of Ancient 0reece and Ancient 1ome. In 0ree' mytholo$y, accordin$ to a #ersion of the myth, -eda &as Tyndareus(s &ife and Heus raped or seduced her in the form of a s&an in the same ni$ht she slept &ith her husband, from this union, t&o e$$s &ere hatched, from &here Heus( sons )astor and ?ollu% 2?olydeuces5 &ere born. 9ne of them mortal, and the other immortal, Heus(s son. But as a conse*uence of the lo#e for each other the 0emini t&ins became mortal>immortal. This presence of mortal>immortality in the myth and its direct connection to lo#e, ma'es me relate it to, The Wild .&ans at )oole/, &here the poet(s lament for his mortality made him create an immortal poetic &or'. In this poem, the cyclical sense of life is opposed to the indi#idual, represented by the poetic #oice, &ho e%presses his frustration for bein$ conscious of formin$ part of that collecti#e cycle of history and cruelly a$in$ at the same time. Be suffers for the certainty of not reco#erin$ his youth or lo#e and feels the ephemerality of life. Be &ould die in some years or decades, and therefore, he &ould be unable to see the s&ans a$ain e#en if the s&ans &ould continue returnin$ and human'ind &ould continue e%istin$. In both poems, s&ans are described as di#ine, e#erlastin$ and po&erful creatures. In , The Wild .&ans at )oole/ this admiration is more focused in their harmonic relation &ith nature, e#en if the dus' creates a mystic atmosphere,the s&ans are deified or the sound of their &in$s a clamor or bell>beat. In , -eda and the .&an/ the s&an symboli+es a male 0od, Heus, &hich is mysterious, #iolent and po&erful. There is an important contrast bet&een the &hiteness of the s&an and the obscurity of the room in the reader(s mind, reinforcin$ the notion of the di#ine enterin$ the mortal

Ane4 &orld< ,A sudden blo&< the $reat &in$s beatin$ still@Abo#e the sta$$erin$ $irl her thi$hs caressed by the dar' &ebs@her nape cau$ht in his bill@ Be holds her helpless breast upon his breast/21>65 The helplessness of -eda &ants to reflect that nothin$ could be done a$ainst 0od(s &ill. -i'e in ,The .econd )omin$/ the di#ine $oes beyond the mortal(s po&er. -eda has no option but lettin$ it happen</ And ho& can body, laid in that &hite rush@ But feel the stran$e heart beatin$ &here it liesD/ 24>85 The reader can(t 'no& if the possession is ust physical, but it seems that Heus also enters her soul, her heart. If &e pay attention to the endin$ of the poem, to the last t&o lines, &e see ho& the poet &onders if Heus has transmitted not only his po&er but also his 'no&led$e to -eda durin$ his possession. There is a su$$estion of itF , 8id she put on his 'no&led$e &ith his po&er@ Before the indifferent bea' could let her dropD 216>155. In my opinion, these last lines are the e#idence for the mystic connotations of this poem, because they su$$est a spiritual union, a transference of 'no&led$e and empo&erment characteristic of the mystical poetry. The form of a s&an &hich Heus had adopted is described as ,feathered $lory/265 is a clear reference to di#inity, a di#inity &hich is enterin$ the mortal &orld or 0od &hose actions &ould chan$e human'ind(s destiny. The symbolic form of a rape, of se%ual possession is a &ay that mystic poetry adopts to describe the feelin$ of bein$ united to 0od. In .panish poetry, &e can find these allusions in .an Auan de -a )ru+ or .anta Teresa de Aesus poems. .an Auan de la )ru+(s poems, for instance, ha#e been interpreted as reli$ious or erotic poetry, especially his &or's Cntico espiritual 213865 and ,:oche oscura del alma/21548>15875 &here &e can find similar descriptions to ,-eda and the .&an/. The erotic o#ertones of the Italian 1enaissance are brou$ht bac' by William Butler Yeats to the poem, &ho continues that poetic tradition but ma'in$ these o#ertones much more e%plicit and #iolent< , A shudder in the loins en$enders there@ The bro'en &all, the burnin$ roof and to&er@And A$amemnon dead./ 23>115 In this poem, Yeats describes ho& the death of A$amemnon and Troy(s destruction are conse*uences of the act of the rape by Heus, the brute blood of the air/2175 to -eda. In the 13!"s, William Butler Yeats &as becomin$ increasin$ly estran$ed from public opinion in

Ane8 Ireland and as a conse*uence of this, the poet &rote this poem in order to challen$e and pro#o'e the people &ho &ere critici+in$ him. Its erotic o#ertones made ,-eda and the .&an/ contro#ersial and e#en sub#ersi#e for many readers of the time, somethin$ that William Butler Yeats &anted, since the poem &as a response to the $o#ernment initiati#es such as censorship after the )i#il War< /Be became increasin$ly embattled and deliberately combati#e, and en oyed outra$in$ 8ublin opinionF he did so &ith the publication of ,-eda and the .&an./2Bo&es and Ielly,165. In a note that Yeats &rote to his editor, Yeats e%pressed &hy he &rote this poem &ith this #iolent se%uality</:othin$ is no& possible but some mo#ement, or birth from abo#e, preceded by some #iolent annunciation/ 2Aeffares !675. It is remar'able ho& the cycles of human history &ere described as startin$ and endin$ &ith #iolence or destruction in Yeats( poems as &e can see in ,-eda and the .&an/ and ,The .econd )omin$/. The ,.econd )omin$/ is a poem that belon$s to William Butler Yeats( poem collection boo' Michael Ro artes and the !ancer213!15 and it is &ritten in blan' #erse. In ,The .econd )omin$/ the form follo&s the thematic content and therefore, the poet is not follo&in$ a particular literary formal tradition. This poem represents a rupture &ith his pre#ious poetry, the end of the cycle or &heel of an entire era of human history, &hich start is presented in ,-eda and the .&an/. The meter follo&s the poem(s apocalyptic idea of an abstract cosmic force &hich produces chaos and destruction< ,Thin$s fall apartF the centre cannot holdF@;ere anarchy is loosened upon the &orld/27> 65. As &e can notice in these lines, Yeats adopts an impersonal #ision of the &orld as a &hole instead of focusin$ in a concrete space and time. This &ay of presentin$ the uni#erse from a detached point of #ie& is characteristic of a $reat number of modern &or's as T... Gliot(s The Waste "and, and is therefore, another ar$ument for statin$ that Yeats &as a modernist poet. In spite of this detached perspecti#e, instead of settin$ it in ancient times as in ,-eda and the .&an/ or in the present as in ,The Wild .&ans at )oole/ William Butler Yeats &rote this poem announcin$ the future re#elation that &ould entirely chan$e the &orld(s order</.urely some re#elation is at handF@.urely the .econd )omin$ is at hand./23>1"5 Throu$h these #erses, &e find a reference to

Ane3 the reli$ious 1e#elation to Aohn, &here )hrist(s .econd )omin$ is heralded by the arri#al of the Beast of the Apocalypse. A beast to &hom the poet ma'es reference in the last lines of the poem</And &hat rou$h beast, its hour come round at last, @.louches to&ards Bethlem to be bornD/2!1>!!5. The Beast of Apocalypse(s apparition is announced but the fi$ure of )hristianity doesn(t accompany it anymore. The )hristian era had ended or failed in William Butler Yeats( notion of the future, e#en if it hadn(t disappeared in Yeats( times or e#en in our contemporary society. There is a stron$ criticism of the )hristian era in Yeats( poem< ,but no& I 'no&@ That t&enty centuries of stony sleep@Were #e%ed to ni$htmare by a roc'in$ cradle/218>!"5. Throu$h this #erses, Yeats is e%pressin$ ho& human'ind had been in a symbolical state of sleep, alienated by )hristianity. The ne& annunciation &ould suppose a #iolent end of this prolon$ed alienation and a ne& be$innin$, &hich, as in ,-eda and the .&an/ is fascinatin$ and horrible at the same time. And this lac' of a fi$ure is a &ay the poet has to e%press that the ne& era &ould be completely different and ne&. The notion of this cycle has been omitted by Belen Jendler, &ho defined the poem in a too synthetic &ay, o#ersimplifyin$ it< ,The .econd )omin$/ an alto$ether more archetypal poem poem about the archetypal poem about the turn of history to&ards #iolence/2Jendler, 435. G#en if Yeats describes an attac' of a ,rou$h beast/ 2!15in &hich the reli$ious or di#ine also appears, in#erted in a terrifyin$ &ay and $i#in$ ne& meanin$s to the reli$ious notions of ,re#elation/ or ,.econd )omin$/, he presents the Apocalypse and its #iolence to sho& ho& the )hristian he$emony is comin$ to an end and ho& a ne& &orld order or era &ould start. The cyclic sense of this poem is missed in Belen Jendler(s description of the poem, a cycle of life and human history that I found in it and &hich has been the ma or connection I found bet&een ,The .econd )omin$/,,The Wild .&ans at )oole/ and ,-eda and the .&an/. In the contrary, I thin' that :orman Aeffares presented the poem considerin$ the cyclical notion in it, because he e%plained that this announcement or .econd )omin$ is a &ay of endin$ &ith the )hristian $od and replacin$ it for a ne& one< ,The poem &hich prophesies the arri#al of a ne& $od ta'es its title from )hristian doctrine./2Aeffares !"15. The ne& di#ine fi$ure or e#en the possibility of it is deliberately #a$ue in Yeats( poem,

Ane1" reflectin$ the doubtfulness or indecision characteristic of modernity. ,The .econd )omin$/(s openin$ presents the notion of the cyclical symboli+ed throu$h the turnin$ in the &idenin$ $yre, &hich could be paralleled to the returnin$ of the s&ans e#ery autumn in ,The Wild .&ans at )oole/</Turnin$ and turnin$ in the &idenin$ $yre@The falcon cannot hear the falconer/21>!5. In these lines, Yeats presented the cycle of life in a perpetual motion as a force &hich escapes human control. In a footnote of the poem, the critic Aames ?ethica e%plains &hat the $yres &ere for Yeats and ho& he used them to describe the cycles of history<, A term used by Yeats to describe a spiralin$ motion that forms a cone. In a note to the poem he defined the forces of history in terms of $yres/2?ethica,465 William Butler Yeats described the )hristian cycle or era has been a failure and its decay is present throu$hout his poem</The ceremony of innocence is dro&nedF@ The best lac' all con#iction, &hile the &orst@Are full of passionate intensity/26>85. G#il dominated the end of the )hristian era, the apocalypse seem to be happenin$ in Yeats( poem. This ne$ati#e #ision of the future the poet had &as probably caused by the World War I 21316>185 and The Irish )i#il War213!!>13!75 that had recently happened. These terrible political e#ents contributed to the creation of William Butler Yeats( most ne$ati#e #ie& of human'ind, as in his poem ,Gaster 1316/. As a conse*uence of this despairin$ #ision of the &orld, he described the destruction of the &orld or ci#ili+ation as the people of the time 'ne& it<//The .econd )omin$/ is a spectacularly successful poetical e#ocation of the sudden and ine%orable defeat of the present ci#ili+ation by a horrifyin$ monster./29(8onnell 875. I really li'ed ho& 9(8onnell pointed out that it &as the ci#ili+ation of the time &hat &ould be destroyed to be replaced by another one</Yeats belie#ed that the ,t&enty centuries/ of the )hristian era &ould soon be supplanted by a ne& pa$an era, &hich the people of the present era &ould find utterly alien and therefore shoc'in$/29(8onnell 875. This shoc'in$ era that Yeats himself denied to belon$ to 2e#en if he &rote this poem in &hich the apparition of a ne& era is present5 &as, in my opinion, the modernist era. =rom the three poems I ha#e analy+ed, this is the most modern of them due to its apocalyptic #ision of the &orld and the #ie& of the ci#ili+ation as decayin$, &hich reminds the reader of the modern T.. Gliot(s The Waste

Ane11 "and and to a scene of 8ante Ali$heri(s #n$erno at the same time. The description 9(8onnell made about the cyclical in this poem as &ell, confirms the importance of this poem as the symbol of the end of an era and start of another one. ;oreo#er, it sho&s ho& ,-eda and the .&an/ and ,The .econd )omin$/ are stron$ly connected, since the s&an that rapes -eda is the a#atar o manifestation of the be$innin$ of an entire era, a manifestation unclear in ,The .econd )omin$/ as a conse*uence of bein$ set in modern times, &hen e#en the poet could not 'no& ho& the pa$an era that &ould replace the )hristian one &ould be li'e. Yeats had a theory in &hich e#ery t&o thousand years, an era &as destroyed or ended to start a ne& era &hich &as totally opposite to the pre#ious one< ,In those cycles, each successi#e ci#ili+ation has #alues that are diametrically opposed to those of the precedin$ ci#ili+ation, and the onset of each ne& ci#ili+ation is announced by the sudden manifestation of an a#atar, such as Belen of Troy or )hrist./29(8onnell 875. This usa$e of mythical or reli$ious fi$ures of both )hristian and pa$an reli$ions and cultures to describe modern e%periences or e#en to describe the future, as in ,The .econd )omin$/. Bis capacity of ma'in$ a poem considered sub#ersi#e and ne& usin$ an ancient myth li'e -eda and the .&an is &hat made Yeats one of the most remar'able modern poet of the !"th century. In conclusion, e#en if the three poems I had analy+ed belon$ to different poem collections of William Butler Yeats, the notion of human life and human history as cyclical is present in the three of them, as the poems( reader can notice throu$h the ,scatter &heelin$ in $reat bro'en rin$s/2115, the annunciation made to -eda as the be$innin$ of the era &hich lasted until the )hristian era and the symbol of the $yre continually turnin$. Yeats &rote these poems in his maturity and sho&n his 'no&led$e of a &ide ran$e of cultural references by usin$ their multiple symbols and ima$ery and rene&in$ them, presentin$ them as somethin$ ne&, as if they &ere part of a literary cycle. Throu$h the u%taposition of life and death, destruction and re$eneration, lo#e and loss, indi#idual and collecti#e, *uietness and #iolence, youth and maturity, nature and ci#ili+ation, beauty and horror, reality and desire, the di#ine and the human, the immortal and mortal the poet pro#ides us &ith his

Ane1! notion of history and life throu$h these poems.

Wor's )ited

Ane17 9(8onnell, William B. The %oetr& o$ Willia' (utler Yeats) an introduction. :e& Yor', En$ar, 1386. 87. ;ills, 0eor$e Barper. Yeats and The Occult. )anada,The ;acmillan ?ress -td,1345.!6. Bo&es, ;ar orie and Ielly, Aohn. The Ca' rid*e Co'panion to W.( Yeats. )ambrid$e. )ambrid$e Eni#ersity ?ress, !""6.16. Yeats, William Butler. A Vision. -ondon. ;acmillan and co, 136!. !68. ?ethica, Aames. Yeats+s %oetr&, !ra'a and %rose. :e& Yor',W.W. :orton K )ompany, Inc, !""". 46. Aeffares, A. :orman. A re,ised and e-plained edition o$ A COMM./TARY O/ T0. CO"".CT.! %O.MS O1 W.() Y.ATS.Bon$ Ion$, The ;acmillan ?ress -td, 1386. !"1> !67. Jendler, Belen./The later poetry/The Ca' rid*e Co'panion to W.( Yeats. )ambrid$e. )ambrid$e Eni#ersity ?ress, !""6.43.