Twilights of Dew and of Fire: A Study of the Early Poetry of W.B. Yeats
Abstract
To undertake a study of Yeats's poetry involves a tremendous
risk, for Yeats had assimilated great bodies of myth and
thought that emerge, frequently in obscure form, in his poetry.
The risk is in the unfailing temptation to approach the poetry
as a code which, if deciphered through research into Yeats's
sources, will yield the meaning behind the poetry. The temptation
becomes greater in the earlier poetry. for one cannot approach
the poetry "cold" and learn much from it or about it.
I have tried to straddle the line between a research-based
thesis and a purely subjective interpretation. Much of what I
gathered from initial sources I used to give myself a background
to begin, and thus, this material was not cited in the thesis
itself.