W. B. Yeats: A Literary Life

228 Pages·1995·21.85 MB·English

by  Alasdair D. F. Macrae (auth.)

W.B.YEATS
Macmillan Literary Lives
General Editor: Richard Dutton, Professor of English
Lancaster University
This series offers stimulating accounts of the literary careers of the
most admired and influential English-language authors. Volumes
follow the outline of writers' working lives, not in the spirit of tradi
tional biography, but aiming to trace the professional, publishing
and social contexts which shaped their writing. The role and status
of 'the author' as the creator of literary texts is a vexed issue in cur
rent critical theory, where a variety of social, linguistic and psycho
logical approaches have challenged the old concentration on writers
as specifically-gifted individuals. Yet reports of 'the death of the
author' in literary studies are (as Mark Twain said of a premature
obituary) an exaggeration. This series aims to demonstrate how an
understanding of writers' careers can promote, for students and
general readers alike, a more informed historical reading of their
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Published titles
Morris Beja JohnMepham
JAMES JOYCE VIRGINIA WOOLF
Cedric C. Brown Michael O'Neill
JOHN MILTON PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Richard Dutton Leonee Ormond
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ALFRED TENNYSON
Jan Fergus George Parfitt
JANE AUSTEN JOHN DONNE
Paul Hammond Gerald Roberts
JOHN DRYDEN GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
David Kay Felicity Rosslyn
BEN JONSON ALEXANDER POPE
MaryLago Tony Sharpe
E. M. FORSTER T.S. ELIOT
Alasdair D. F. Macrae Gary Waller
W.B.YEATS EDMUND SPENSER
Joseph McMinn Cedric Watts
JONATHAN SWIFT JOSEPH CONRAD
Kerry McSweeney Tom Winnifrith and Edward Chitham
GEORGE ELIOT CHARLOTTE AND EMILY BRONTE
(MARIAN EVANS) John Worthen
D. H. LAWRENCE
Forthcoming titles
Ronald Ayling Ira Nadel
SEAN O'CASEY EZRA POUND
Deirdre Coleman Angela Smith
SAMUEL TAYLOR KATHERINE MANSFIELD
COLERIDGE Grahame Smith
Peter Davison CHARLES DICKENS
GEORGE ORWELL Janice Thaddeus
James Gibson FANNY BURNEY
THOMAS HARDY John Williams
Kenneth Graham WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
HENRY JAMES Barry Windeatt
Philip Mallett GEOFFREY CHAUCER
RUDYARD KIPLING David Wykes
EVELYN WAUGH
W. B. Yeats
A Literary Life
Alasdair D. F. Macrae
Senior Lecturer in English Studies
University of Stirling
M
MACMILLAN
© Alasdair D. F. Macrae 1995
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First published 1995 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
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and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-42050-8 ISBN 978-1-349-23749-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-23749-4
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95
In memory of my parents
and for
Elise, Calum and Brendan
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements
X
Chronology: Yeats's Life and Contemporary Events xi
Introduction 1
1 Family and Place 7
2 Yeats and the 1890s: Celtic Twilight and Golden
Dawn 32
3 Yeats and Politics 57
4 Yeats and the Theatre: 'Baptism of the Gutter' 81
5 Friends and Loves 102
6 Masks and Development 126
7 A Vision of Byzantium 146
8 Yeats and Modem Poetry 166
Notes 189
Select Bibliography 192
General Index 195
Index of References to Yeats's Work 202
vii
Preface
A word is needed on the organisation of this book. I have not writ
ten a straightforward or chronological narrative of Yeats's career;
there are a number of excellent, detailed biographies of him already.
I have chosen to approach him from a number of angles, to locate
him in relation to the people, ideas and events with which he was
involved, so that the complexity of his literary personality might
emerge. For this complexity to emerge, the book needs to be taken
as a whole, with whatever overlaps, developments and contradic
tions occur. A preliminary but substantial chronology of Yeats and
contingent happenings is provided, to which the reader can return
for support and gradually fill out.
ix
Acknowledgements
Yeats is often a difficult writer and I have been greatly helped over
the years by many of the books written on him. In attempting to
write an accessible literary life I have had to find my way through
vast amounts of material by and on the poet. My students in semi
nars have helped to keep my excitement fresh and one of the real
privileges of my life has been the opportunity to teach several times
at the annual Yeats Summer School in Sligo. There I have been
stimulated, informed and entertained in a very special way, and
many fellow teachers and students have become close friends. I
have learned much from Augustine Martin, Brendan Kennelly,
Seamus Heaney, Helen Vendler and Declan Kiberd, to name only
the most striking. Eoghan O'Neill has helped me to understand
something of Ireland's history, particularly the Gaelic side of Irish
culture. For over twenty years I have enjoyed a friendship with
A. Norman Jeffares, and his gusto, acuteness and generosity have
been invaluable: I owe an unrepayable debt to Derry and Jeanne
Jeffares. Margaret Walshe has been a wonderful typist and reader
between the lines. My wife, Elise, has sustained me, proofread and
advised with patience and insight.
Quotations from Yeats are taken from the works by him listed in the
Select Bibliography.
The poem 'The Artist' by William Carlos Williams is reprinted by
kind permission of The Carcanet Press from Selected Poems. In the
United States and Canada permission has been granted as follows:
William Carlos Williams: The Collected Poems of William Carlos
Williams, 1939-1962, val. II. Copyright © 1962 by William Carlos
Williams. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing
Corp.
X
Chronology: Yeats's Life
and Contemporary Events
1865 William Butler Yeats Salvation Army founded.
born in Dublin. End of American Civil War.
Assassination of Lincoln.
1866 Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment.
1867 Family moves to Attempted Fenian Rising.
London. Marx, Capital.
Arnold, On the Study of Celtic
Literature.
1869 Church of Ireland disestablished
by Gladstone's Government.
Suez Canal opened.
1870 First Irish Land Act passed.
Dickens dies.
Ruskin, Lectures in Art.
D. G. Rossetti, Poems, 1870.
1873 Pater, The Renaissance.
1874 Family moves house First Impressionist Exhibition in
in London. Paris.
1876 Family moves to First telephone message
Bedford Park. transmitted.
Wagner, The Ring, completed.
Ibsen, Peer Gynt.
1877-81 Attends the Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.
Godolphin School Standish O'Grady, History of
in London. Ireland: The Heroic Period
(completed 1880).
Court case between Whistler
and Ruskin.
xi