The shaping of the eternal in the lyric poetry of William Butler Yeats and Gerrit Achterberg.
Item
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Title
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The shaping of the eternal in the lyric poetry of William Butler Yeats and Gerrit Achterberg.
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Identifier
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AAI9510726
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identifier
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9510726
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Creator
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Taaffe, Thomas Patrick.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Fred Nichols
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Date
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1994
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Comparative | Literature, English | Literature, Germanic
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Abstract
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The lyric poems of Yeats and Achterberg set the identity of each poet within an association of self, other, and world. Each develops an image of eternity which shapes the world of his poems and establishes their dramatic context. In imagined alliance with the eternal, each achieves identity as a poet in the struggle to overcome the sorrows of time.;For Yeats, this alliance is effected within the soul, that half of personality which is always in communion with its eternal nature and source. The temporal self, the other half, is but a passing phase of soul's eternal life. The activity of poetry forges this tragic awareness from the materials of historical experience.;For Achterberg, this alliance is achieved through belief in Jesus as the eternal incarnation of love, substantiating the poet's quest to create a new body for his dead beloved in the poem.;For both, the imagery of the non-temporal is grounded in certain anxieties of time. The opening section of the dissertation delineates these sorrows as expressed in the poems, evolving from this--first for Yeats, then for Achterberg--the framework within which each poet develops his central symbol of eternity (Chapters 1 to 4).;The second section of the dissertation articulates the central imagination of the eternal as constructed in both sets of texts (Chapters 5 and 6). A third section demonstrates the resultant conceptions of the poetic self (Chapters 7 and 8). The final section examines its effects on each poet's understanding of the other, on which the poems depend for their fulfillment (Chapters 9 and 10).;The dissertation concludes with a note on the radical sense of lyric creation shared by both poets; and on the difference in their understanding of the other, which contrasts their conceptions of poetry. Yeats's eternity establishes the other within the soul, and therein, the core of poetic communication. Achterberg's forms the poem at the boundary of the other-reaching there for you, his lost love. The poem cannot determine your response; it waits for you. Facing your death, the eternal life of Jesus grounds hope for restored communion.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
