In such poems as “The Dialogue of Self and Soul” and “Vacillation”, theantinomies and oppositions which I have traced in the previous issue of this Journaldevelop in a very complex manner within the frame of such figures as “the sword”and “the tower”, “brand” and “flaming breath”, “burning leaves” and “green lushfoliage moistened with dew.” And they are always posited as implying theantinomies of life and death, remorse and joy, body and soul, earthly life andheaven. In the process of vacillating between “extremities”, Self and Heart whichfigure not only the body but also the poet’s self declines Soul’s request to “seek outreality, leaving things that seem.” Even though Heart vacillates between antinomies,always looking towards what are opposites to itself, it chooses Homer and hisunchristened heart as its example and determines to “live tragically.” By opposingthe life of a Swordman to that of a Saint and receiving Homer as the figuralexample of his art, Yeats puts the foundation that his lyric should be understood astragedy.
“The Gyres” and “Lapis Lazuli”, two tragic lyrics composed in Yeats’s lastyears, embody his idea of the tragic lyric as well as his tragic world view. In “TheGyres”, the poet, invoking his muse “the old Rocky Face” to look forth and viewthe world’s overall collapse, “but laugh in tragic joy”. And in “Lapis Lazuli”, thetragic heroes of the Shakespearean tragedy are displayed as the opposing powers orqualities to “the hysterical women” of the modern world. In both of these poems,the poet’s tragic joy or exultation springs from the tragic vision that all things “falland are built again.” The very eternal recurrence of the battle of antinomies andopposite forces is the source which enacts the poet’s strength and energy to exalt in the midst of despair. Therefore, we may be able to say that the poet’s magicalaesthetic which is based on the absolute power of death and the tragic sense of lifeelevates his lyrics to the height of disruptive tragedy, letting the poet to enact tragicauthority at the same time.