ISSN : 1226-4946(Print)
ISSN : 2288-5412(Online)
ISSN : 2288-5412(Online)
The Yeats Journal of Korea Vol.9 pp.227-239
DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.14354/yjk.1998.9.227
DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.14354/yjk.1998.9.227
The Significance of Death Images in Yeats’s Later Poems
Abstract
W.B. Yeats is a poet of constant changes. Death is characterized bythe nature of fixing, fixing things as they are. Yeats fights against theforces of death. “The Tower” is an attempt to transcend the death of bodyby heightening the spiritual. The body is destined to death, but its spiritstrives to overcome the power of death. Similarly, in “Sailing toByzantium,” which precedes “The Tower” manifests the posturing of thepoet who is in pursuit of a means to transcend death.
The belief in transcending death is not a product of a moment but theconsequence of a long quest of changing his poetic self. The image of goldin “Sailing to Byzantium” has a two-fold meaning. One is the meaning ofthe permanence of gold itself, and the other, the meaning of a form, orthe existence of form. The gold is hammered into a form. The process offorging a form is “learning.” Yeats wishes to be changed by learning, andwishes to take a form through the process of changes. That Yeats couldstand firm in face of death, comes from Yeats’s firm belief in changes.That belief could disarm the forces of death. He shows a way to overcomein a concrete way.
“Under Ben Bulben” represents a third area, where life and death areone and the same. This is similar to the form of permanence in the otherpoem. When he says, “Horsemen, pass by!” he may want to reach a thirdstage, in which life and death do not exist. Yeats’s eye is cast upward,beyond the land of life and death; Upward, where the value of self couldsurvive the test of time for good.
The belief in transcending death is not a product of a moment but theconsequence of a long quest of changing his poetic self. The image of goldin “Sailing to Byzantium” has a two-fold meaning. One is the meaning ofthe permanence of gold itself, and the other, the meaning of a form, orthe existence of form. The gold is hammered into a form. The process offorging a form is “learning.” Yeats wishes to be changed by learning, andwishes to take a form through the process of changes. That Yeats couldstand firm in face of death, comes from Yeats’s firm belief in changes.That belief could disarm the forces of death. He shows a way to overcomein a concrete way.
“Under Ben Bulben” represents a third area, where life and death areone and the same. This is similar to the form of permanence in the otherpoem. When he says, “Horsemen, pass by!” he may want to reach a thirdstage, in which life and death do not exist. Yeats’s eye is cast upward,beyond the land of life and death; Upward, where the value of self couldsurvive the test of time for good.
Keywords :
Yeats의 후기시에 나타난 죽음에 대한 연구
초록
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