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ISSN : 1226-4946(Print)
ISSN : 2288-5412(Online)
The Yeats Journal of Korea Vol.28 pp.231-252
DOI :

Reading In the Seven Woods as a Process of Meditation

Yoo Baekyun

Abstract

Yeats published a total of four books of In the Seven Woods over 19 yearperiod starting from 1903 through 1922. A comparison of these four booksdemonstrates how constantly and diligently he repositioned the order of poems, notto mention correcting lines and changing the titles of some poems. It was 1908when the order of poems was finally fixed. Yeats's habitual rearrangement of hispoems suggests that the poet was still struggling to reshape his intention. Thefixation of order of poems in the 1908 volume of In the Seven Woods thenimplies that Yeats finally found himself satisfied with the message he tried toorchestrate through the volume. If so, what is an organizational principle shaping thefinal version of In the Seven Woods? And what message is Yeats going to sendthrough the book of poems? The purpose of this paper is to answer these toquestions. Here my argument is that what Yeats finally chose for the skeleton ofthe 1908 and 1922 volume was a meditative structure. That is, the final order ofpoems has been evolved over the years in such a way as to reflect a meditativestructure. In other words, In the Seven Woods, as a meditative sequence, consistsof three stages of a composition of place, analysis and colloquy, which resemble theprocess in a meditative poem. Hence, his poetic message for the volume is alsoconcerned with the purpose of meditation--specifically the Yeatsian concept ofmeditation--that is, transcending human limitations by dissolving antinomies. Thereare two axes in In the Seven Woods: one--vertical--axis is made by an individualpoem; the other--horizontal--axis is built by an arrangement of poems whichprovides another poetic statement. Here we have an individual poem which, whenviewed separately, mainly deals with his emotional turmoil and deep psychic unrestdue to his troubled love experiences with Maud Gonne. Here we also have a whole group of poems which are carefully framed to elevate his personal bitternessand anxiety to the collective problems of human beings due to their inability todeal with antinomian principles. Through In the Seven Woods, the main character,or Yeats, sets out a meditative journey, a progressive movement toward a statebeyond time or an aconceptual state where the meditator finds an answer for hisquest for oneness. In the end, however, Yeats shows his strong skepticism aboutthe possibility of achieving oneness.

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