Unlocking the Poetry of W. B. Yeats Unlocking the Poetry of W. B. Yeats undertakes a thorough rereading of Yeats’ oeuvre as an extended meditation on the image and theme of the heart as it is evident within the poetry. It places the heart at the centre of a complex web of Yeatsian preoccupations and associations – from the biographical, to the poetic and philosophical, to the mythological and mystical. In particular, the book seeks to unlock Yeats’ complex aes- thetic vision via his understanding of the ancient Egyptian “Weighing of the Heart” ceremony. The work provides a chronological narrative arc that looks to use the theme of the heart as it recurs in the poetry in order to circumvent and overcome more established frameworks. Its purpose is to offer refreshing ways of conceptualizing and building alternatives to more deeply entrenched, but not entirely satisfactory, arguments that have been offered since Yeats’ death in 1939, while demonstrating the centrality of the occult to Yeats’ art. Daniel Tompsett was awarded his PhD in English Literature by Queen Mary, University of London. In 2012, he published Wallace Stevens and Pre-Socratic Philosophy (Routledge) and is principally concerned with twentieth-century poetry, Modernism and the connections between phi- losophy, mythology and literature. Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature 10 Writing for the Masses Dorothy L. Sayers and the Victorian Literary Tradition Christine Colon 11 Essays on Music and Language in Modernist Literature Musical Modernism Katherine O’Callaghan 12 Ulysses and Faust Tradition and Modernism from Homer till the Present Harry Redner 13 Lorca’s Legacy Essays in Interpretation Jonathan Mayhew 14 The Early Avant-Garde Literature and Art 1900–1925 Willard Bohn 15 Bringing Up War Babies The Wartime Child in Women’s Writing and Psychoanalysis 1930–1960 Amanda Jane Jones 16 Unlocking the Poetry of W. B. Yeats Heart Mysteries Daniel Tompsett For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com. Unlocking the Poetry of W. B. Yeats Heart Mysteries Daniel Tompsett First published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Taylor & Francis The right of Daniel Tompsett to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Tompsett, Daniel, author. Title: Unlocking the poetry of W. B. Yeats: heart mysteries / by Daniel Tompsett. Description: New York: Routledge, 2018. | Series: Routledge studies in twentieth-century literature; 52 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018010043 Subjects: LCSH: Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865–1939—Criticism and interpretation. Classification: LCC PR5907 .T66 2018 | DDC 821/.8—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010043 ISBN: 978-1-138-60674-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-46757-8 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by codeMantra For Kirsten, Lily, Kenna and Evelina, the four corners of my world. Contents Permissions ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 PART I The Desires of the Heart 29 1 The Wanderings of Oisin (1889) – Themes of the Embittered Heart 31 2 Early Lyrics – Souls Threshed from Husks of Threshed Stars 44 PART II The Divided Heart 83 3 The Middle Poems – Death and Rebirth 85 4 The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) – Toward a Coole Vision 133 5 Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921) – Kindling New Fire 162 PART III Sufficient Heart Truths 179 6 The Tower (1928) – The Towering Heart of the Absolute 181 7 The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933) – Spirit and Matter Upon the Winding Stair 239 viii Contents 8 Parnell’s Funeral and Other Poems (1935) – Magical Drumming to Absorb the Antinomies 279 PART IV Tragic Joy and the Weighing of the Heart 299 9 New Poems (1938) – Tragic Joy in the Gyres 301 10 Last Poems (1939) – The Weighing of the Heart 324 Conclusion: Heart Matters – Biblical Tropes in Yeats 356 Bibliography 359 Index 377 Permissions Poetry and Prose of W. B. Yeats From THE COLLECTED WORKS OF W. B. YEATS, VOLUME I: THE POEMS, REVISED by W. B. Yeats, edited by Richard J. Finneran. Copyright © by Anne Yeats. Revisions and additional poems copyright © 1983, 1989 by Anne Yeats. Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. From AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: THE COLLECTED WORKS OF W. B. YEATS, VOLUME III, by W. B. Yeats, edited by William H. O’Donnell and Douglas N. Archibald. Copyright © 1916, 1936 by The Macmillan Company, Inc., Copyright renewed © 1944, 1964 by Anne Yeats. Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. From ESSAYS AND INTRODUCTIONS by W. B. Yeats. Copyright © 1961 by Mrs. W. B. Yeats. Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. From EXPLORATIONS by W. B. Yeats. Copyright © 1962 by Mrs. W. B. Yeats. Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. From COLLECTED PLAYS OF W. B. YEATS, by W. B. Yeats. Copyright © 1934, 1952 by The Macmillan Company. Copyrights renewed © 1962 by Bertha Georgie Yeats and 1980 by Anne Yeats. Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. From MYTHOLOGIES by W. B. Yeats. Copyright © 1959 by Mrs. W. B. Yeats. Reprinted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. From THE COLLECTED WORKS OF W. B. YEATS VOLUME XIII: A Vision, by Catherine E. Paul. Copyright © 1925 by W. B. Yeats. Copyright renewed. Supplementary materials copyright © 2008 by Catherine E. Paul and Margaret Mills Harper. Reprinted with the permis- sion of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. From A VISION: The Revised 1973 Edition, by Margaret Mills Harper. Copyright © 1937 by W. B. Yeats; copyright renewed © 1965 by Bertha Georgie Yeats and Anne Butler Yeats. Reprinted with the permis- sion of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.