W.B. Yeats : the chameleon politician : the political aspect of Yeats's poetry

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the way W.B. Yeats expressed his political beliefs in his poetry. Throughout his Jong poetic career, Yeats endorsed different political ideals which, he believed, could fulfil his dream of restoring an Irish 'Unity of Culture'. From the socialism which he briefly embraced under William Morris's influence, he moved on to cultural nationalism of the Irish Literary Revival. As Yeats began to realise that the potential to change Ireland's course of history lay solely in the hands of certain 'outstanding men', he abandoned his original belief that a 'race' was more important than the 'individual' and formed the notion that only a hierarchically structured society headed by an ideal autocrat capable of expressing the 'bent and current' of his people could establish order and unity in Ireland. As the authority of the Ascendancy continued to dwindle in the aftermath of the civil war, Yeats looked upon fascism as a more tenable alternative to the militant aristocratic conservatism he had previously endorsed. I will argue in the fourth chapter however, that Yeats 's fascist philosophy was not as 'sinister' as George Orwell has claimed it to be. Yeats felt that fascism was the only political alternative that protected the rights of the individual from stifling and intolerant mob-run political systems such as communism and democracy. I will also argue that Yeats' s theory of eugenics, which many critics looked upon with horror, was as serious and 'sinister' as Swift's 'Modest Proposal'.