Yeats And Irish Cultural Identity Built

William Butler Yeats, as a poet, can not be ignored in Irish literature. He is anunpredictable person with many complicated factors------an English Irish poet, a poet whowrites for Irish, and a poet in transition from Romanticism to Symbolism. Based on theconstruction of Irish cultural identity and post-colonialism, this thesis dwells on the maincontents and forms of Yeats’ poetry, hence we can understand his poetry and his thread ofthoughts clearly.This thesis is composed of introduction, main body and conclusion. In theintroduction, the author introduces Yeats’ basic information,the present research abroad andat home, the research method and the significance of this research. Four parts constitute themain body of this thesis. Chapter one shows the cultural crisis in his period.Chapter twoshows the construction of Irish cultural identity in his early poetry(1885-1889).It includesthe poetry of Celtic legend of heroes, and Irish poetic build of literature geography in thecontent, as well as the romantic style of his early poetry in form. Chapter three focuses onthe construction of Irish cultural identity in Yeats’ poetry of middle periods (1900-1920).Inthe content, it describes the poetry about political commentary, the description and desirefor noble spirit. In terms of form, it talks about the independent view of creation and thetheory of Mask in his middle period in form. Chapter four shows the construction of Irishcultural identity in his late period. It studies the Mysticism in Yeats’ poems and theredemption for his Irish cultural identity with the Screw theory in private philosophy.What’s more, according to the categories: his early, middle and late periods, it showsclearly the main characters and thread of the thoughts in Yeats’ different periods’ poems.However, the strict time subsection may lead in ignoring interlacement and irregularity ofpoetic writings. Therefore, in order to guarantee the objectivity and comprehensiveness ofthe construction of Irish cultural identity, the author intentionally adds one or two poems inhis other periods to interpret further, when analyzing the poetry in the certain period. Thelast chapter is conclusion, which concludes Yeasts’ contribution on the construction of Irishculture generally and it takes the Irish current developing situation as examples.Poems are created by people, so the content of poems can not be separated fromhuman beings and society, no more poetic analysis. Therefore, this thesis is alwayssupported by Yeats’ life experience, objective history and facts, and tries to restore a realand vivid Yeats for interpreting the poems and providing the research base quite well. Theauthor hopes this thesis can contribute to interpreting the connotation of national poet Yeats, through the research on the Yeats’ construction of Irish cultural identity with theexamples of his poems.