Critical Essay | Critical Essay by William Butler Yeats

Critical Essay by William Butler Yeats

SOURCE: "The Symbolism of Poetry," in Essays and Introductions (reprint), Macmillan, 1961, pp. 153-64.

This essay, which first appeared in The Dome in 1900, presents Yeats's views on symbolic poetry. In the excerpt which follows, Yeats discusses the emotional and intellectual associations of symbolism and the power of rhythm to evoke a state of meditation in poetry.

Symbolism, as seen in the writers of our day, would have no value if it were not seen also, under one 'disguise or another, in every great imaginative writer,' writes Mr. Arthur Symons in The Symbolist Movement in Literature, a subtle book which I cannot praise as I would, because it has been dedicated to me; and he goes on to show how many profound writers have in the last few years sought for a philosophy of poetry in the doctrine of symbolism, and how even in countries where it is almost scandalous...
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