The design of this course is to read as much of Yeats's work as possible in a semester, and to read it chronologically, along with enough background to make the allusions to Irish history and mythology clear and to highlight their significance. In his famous review of "Ulysses, Order and Myth,"  T. S. Eliot credited Yeats with the invention of the "mythical method" that was to replace the "narrative method." What we will try to do is to develop a good working knowledge of what the mythical method is and how it changes the way we read. What makes Yeats difficult is also what makes him interesting; the different poems in a given volume set up a dialogue with one another, and then the different volumes in his collected works take up the dialogue, complicating and enriching it with different "dramatic" perspectives. Although Yeats is first and foremost a poet of feeling, valuing the "foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart" above all else, what makes him intellectually complex is his ability to entertain and engage any (and all) perspectives, and then to bring those perspectives into dynamic play.

The questions that will recur throughout our discussions concern Yeats's sexual politics, his vision of history and its relation to myth, his national politics (although a nationalist, he was frequently drawn into heated controversy over the catholic--if not Catholic--inclusiveness of his definition of Irishness), his symbolism and its relation to both mysticism and religion, and the kaleidoscopic changes in his perspective(s) as Ireland was ripped apart by the Black and Tans and then the Irish civil war in 1919-the 'twenties. We will read all the volumes of poetry, some of the plays, some of Yeats's prose, some of his letters, some of his autobiography/memoirs, and some of the works that influenced him most strongly, such as Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's 'Axel' and the life and writings of Maud Gonne and Olivia Shakespear.

I will design the seminar to function as a seminar, with students reading discussion through oral and written presentations as much as possible.  One 20-25-pp. seminar paper will also be due at the end of the course