Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® Masters Theses & Specialist Projects Graduate School 5-1-1972 Symbolism in the Poetry of William Butler Yeats Alana White Western Kentucky University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation White, Alana, "Symbolism in the Poetry of William Butler Yeats" (1972). Masters Theses & Specialist Projects. Paper 1035. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1035 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses & Specialist Projects by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. SYMBOLISM IN THE POETRY OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Department of English Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, Kentucky In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Alana J. White May 1972 SYMBOLISM IN THE POETRY OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS APPROVED (Date) DlFectojb of Thesis t Dean of the Graduate School I wish to dedicate this thesis to Dr. William McMahon and Dr. Dorothy McMahon for the kind assistance they have given me in this project and in other ways as well. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE 1 Chapter I. ' THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SYMBOLIC SYSTEM . 3 II. THE ROSE AND THE STONE AS SYMBOLS . 20 III. THE ROSE OF THE COUNTESS KATHLEEN AND VARIOUS LEGENDS AND LYRICS AND .THE WIND AMONG THE REEDS 32 IV. YEATS'S OBJECTIVITY THROUGH THE ROSE AND THE STONE 57 BIBLIOGRAPHY 101 lv PREFACE This thesis is a study of the development of the symbolic system formulated by William Butler Yeats and his subsequent application of this system to his poetry, with special attention to the rose and the stone.