W. B. Yeats, Cultural Nationalism and the Mytical Element: A Study of how the Cultural Nationalist, Yeats, used Mythological Material to Develop a Common Irish Consciousness for the People of Ireland

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to examine how William Butler Yeats’ early poetry hails an Irish national identity, by means of a cultural nationalism based on Celtic mythology. In recent discussions of Yeats’ early poetry scholars have argued that the extensive use of mythological elements in Yeats early poetry simply function as an outlet of his imagination and sexual unease. In the words of Daniel Gomes “If the heavy use of Irish mythology […] can be read as Yeats's declaration of national allegiance, it can also be read as a blank screen onto which Yeats projected his own fantasies and desires” (376). According to this view it would seem that Yeats early poetry serves no meaningful purpose, and thus it would just be read for the sake of pleasure. What this thesis argues, however, is that uses mythological elements to reinvent a cultural identity by means of cultural nationalism. To achieve this, I will analyze three of Yeats early poems and their context. The poems “To Ireland in the Coming Times” (1892), “The lake Isle of Innisfree” (1890) and “The Wanderings of Oisin” (1889) will illustrate that above all, Yeats is a cultural nationalist transpiring both occult and mythological symbolism. This is significant because it explains what gave rise to the cultural and literary prosperity of the 1880s and 1890s in Ireland.