摘 要

爱尔兰诗人叶芝,后期象征主义大师，是现代主义诗歌的先驱者和代表作家, 其作用和地位无人能取代。叶芝的象征主义诗歌创作在早期、中期和后期各个阶段不断发展,其诗歌风格也不断发生改变。 本文将简要介绍叶芝生平及其代表作品，然后主要分析叶芝各个阶段象征主义诗歌特点，并且进一步从诗歌韵律、感性象征和理性象征两大方面对比分析叶芝象征主义诗歌前后期的不同之处，最后总结出叶芝诗歌方面象征主义运用的进步与发展，这对其象征主义的研究具有重要意义。

关键词：叶芝；诗歌； 象征主义

Contents

1. Introduction 1
2. Demonstration 2
   1. A brief introduction to symbolism 2
   2. The development of symbolism in Yeats’s poems 3
      1. Symbolism at early stage: desire for love 4
      2. Symbolism at middle stage: dissatisfaction with politics and society 5
      3. Symbolism at later stage: reflection on life 7
   3. Differences in symbolism between Yeats’s early and later poetry stage 9
      1. Difference in rhythm 9
      2. Difference in emotion 11
         1. Perceptual symbol 11
         2. Rational symbol 12
3. Conclusion 14

Works Cited 16

Bibliography 17

A Comparative Analysis of Symbolism in Yeats’s Poems

Introduction

As a famous Irish poet, Yeats is also an outstanding playwright and essayist who deeply believes in mysticism. He is the leader of the Renaissance in Ireland and one of the most famous modernist poets in the twentieth century at the same time.

William Butler Yeats was born in a family which paid great attention to the artistic learning since his father was a portrait painter. In order to develop his father’s painting career, his family moved to London to seek good opportunities when Yeats was young. As is known, instead of going to school, Yeats and his other brothers and sisters received education at home in the beginning. Their mother would tell them interesting stories and folk tales about their hometown. In 1877, William Yeats entered the primary school named Godolphin and spent four years learning there. However, his performance in school was not prominent. At the end of the year 1881, the whole family moved back to Dublin. Then, Yeats continued his studies in Erasmus Smith Middle School which was next to the drawing rooms of his father. In fact, he spent much time staying there and met many famous artists and writers. Furthermore, Yeats read a large number of books created by great British writers like William Shakespeare and then discussed them with those writers and artists who were older than him. There is no doubt that his experience in this period laid a solid foundation for his later achievements in poetry. Certainly, in December 1883, Yeats graduated from the middle school and started his career as a poet.

Living at the turn of the century, Yeats witnessed the great transformation from

romanticism to modernism in the literary world and was profoundly influenced. When it came to the features of his poetry creation, we couldn’t deny that Yeats is a good master of both romanticism and modernism writing with his own system of poetry and finally becomes the representative of modernist poets. Yeats’s poetic style does not always remain unchangeable; instead it has gone through many changes which

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