The Mind of Winter: Poetic Theories of Yeats and Stevens
Graduation Date
Summer 1975
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
My object in this paper is to explore and more closely define each poet's comprehension of ultimate reality, in other words, unity of being and nothingness, and to show how Yeats and Stevens used related imagery of cold, ice, and stone in the service of their poetic imagination.
In Part I I am chiefly concerned with the genesis of these images and conflicts. I felt that it was important to view the poets' backgrounds, however briefly, in order to theorize about the psychological roots of their imagery. For that reason I have included what I consider to be relevant biographical information. In addition, because every man is a product of his times, I have also included a sketch of the milieu of each poet. Part I also contains explications of several of beats' and Stevens' early poems which demonstrate the conflict that each poet found himself in and the need to seek the answer along other than the conventional paths.
Part II of the paper is a discussion of Yeats' and Stevens' growing awareness of ultimate reality through the perfection of their ”cold" visions and the incarnation of these visions in their heroes.
Several hero poems are examined. I also discuss some differences in the ways the two poets approach their poetry. Again I have drawn from biographical material to suggest the reasons for these differences. The paper concludes with a discussion of one of Yeats1 and one of Stevens' late poems to demonstrate how the achievement of their goals was realized in their finest verse, hox "Old Rocky Face” of Yeats and The Rock of Stevens became the lasting symbols of the reconciliation of self and non-self, imagination and reality, subjectivity and objectivity.