Yeats as a symbolist
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The French symbolists, led by Mallarme, condemned mere "exteriority", and laid great emphasis on the treatment of the sensations or the representation of the vague, fleeting impressions that constantly pass before the mind's eye. It meant a virtual withdrawal from the life, a concentration on its experience and its expression through the use of symbols.
Before the French movement Yeats had already experimented his poetry with symbolism and after the rise of French symbolism he was more determined and devoted to it. In order to comprehend his poetry, one has to be familiar with his own version of complex symbolism, magic, history, occultism and theosophy. Symbolism is a major way of conveying Yeats’s ideas who wants to say more than what meets the eye wants to suggest something beyond the expressed meaning. His symbolism was based upon the poetry of Blake, Shelley and Rosette. But, more than that, his symbolism was based upon his reading of books on the occult from the works of Madame Blavatsky Yeats learned that Anima Mundi, a reservoir of all that has touched mankind, may be evoked by symbols. He also became acquainted with the doctrine of correspondences, the doctrine of signatures, and the doctrine of magical in connotations and symbols which have power over spiritual and material reality.
Symbols may be of two kinds (1) Traditional and (2) Personal. Traditional symbols are such stock symbols as have been in general use. For instance, 'rose' is a traditional. Symbol of beauty and has been in use in poetry from the earliest times. As a majority of readers are familiar with such stock symbols their use increases the charm and pleasure of poetry without introducing any element of complexity or obscurity. Personal symbols, how-ever, are devised by the poet for his own purposes, to express the vague fleeting impressions passing through his mind, or to convey his own sense of the mystery of life. They express the poet's experiences which are often of a mystical nature. As the readers are not familiar with such symbols, they create difficulties for them, though at the same time they add to the charm and dignity of the
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