The poetry of W. B. Yeats covers almost three distinctive and successive periods in the history of English literature such as the late Victorian, Edwardian and the Modern period and the poetic stature he attained in due course virtually shows a zodiac range of interests expressed with a correspondingly strenuous maturity in form and style spanning over decades. The greatness of Yeats’ poetry lies in the simple fact that he could successfully integrate thoughts, feelings and ideas into a coherent body of experience. Apparently, the initial beginning of the poet in the fashion of the romantics and Pre-Raphaelites with an emerging drift to realism in the middle phase, hardly gives any hint of the complexity of Yeats’ major poems where the persona represents divergent claims to consciousness typical of a poetic universe (constituted mainly by three practical passions in his life, viz, poetry, love and Irish nationalism) which reserves room both for the crisp and the casual; the regal and the ribald; the mundane and the mysterious. However, a meticulous reading of Yeats’ poetry reveals a thorough progress towards making poetry not only a natural utterance for the poet, but also a symbol of a coveted identity - a ‘Unity of Being’ – an ideal which, for example, breathtakingly comes close to realization in a seminal piece like Sailing to Byzantium. The present article focuses on some poems taken from the middle period of Yeats’ poetry so as to trace an element of continuity in the Yeatsian poetics.
| Published in | History Research (Volume 13, Issue 2) | 
| DOI | 10.11648/j.history.20251302.16 | 
| Page(s) | 96-102 | 
| Creative Commons | 
 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. | 
| Copyright | Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group | 
Romantics, Natural Utterance, Irish Nationalism, Unity of Being
| [1] | Bowra, C. M. The Heritage of Symbolism. London: Macmillan, 1943. Print. P. 188. | 
| [2] | Brown, Terence. The Life of W. B. Yeats: A Critical Biography. USA: Blackwell Publishers. 2000. Reprint. P. 48. | 
| [3] | Chatterjee, Bhabatosh. The Poetry of W. B. Yeats. Orient Longman, 1962. P. 85. | 
| [4] | Donne, John. Canonization. Poetry Foundation 2025. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44097/the-canonization . Accessed 30 August, 2025. | 
| [5] | Eliot, T. S. The Journey of the Magi. The Poetry Archive 2025. https://poetryarchive.org/poem/journey-magi/ Accessed 30 August, 2025. | 
| [6] | Islam, KaziNazrul. KandariHushiyar (Helmsman, Be Aware!). kobikolpolota 2025. https://www.kobikolpolota.in/kandari-husiar-kazi-nazrul-islam/#google_vignette . Accessed 30 August 2025. | 
| [7] | Jackman, Rob. Black and White: The Balanced View in Yeats? Poetry. W. B. Yeats, An Anthology of Recent Criticism. Ed. G. R. Taneja. Delhi: D. K. Fine Art Press Ltd., 2005. Print | 
| [8] | Jeffares, Anglo Norman. W. B. Yeats: Selected Poetry. Pan Books, 1974. Print.(The lines of all poems of Yeats except Adam’s Curse have been cited from this edition.) | 
| [9] | Rai, Vikramaditya. The Poetry of W. B. Yeats. Delhi. Doaba House 1991. Print. P. 12. | 
| [10] | Rilke, Raina Maria.. Letter to A Young Poet. https://wordsfortheyear.com/2017/11/15/from-letters-to-a-young-poet-by-rainer-maria-rilke/ Accessed 30 August 2025. | 
| [11] | Rilke, Raina Maria.. The Sonnets to Orpheus. No. 3. Tui-wai.com 2025. https://www.tue-wai.com/blog/from-the-sonnets-to-orpheus-by-rainer-maria-rilke Accessed 30 August, 2025. | 
| [12] | Stock, A. G. W. B. Yeats: His Poetry and Thought. London: Cambridge University Press,1961. Print. P. 2. | 
| [13] | Tagore, Rabindranath. “EbarPhirao More.” (Now, Take Me Back). Sanchayita. Shantiniketan. Visva- Bharati. 2013. Reprint | 
| [14] | Tagore, Rabindranath. Tirthajatri. (The Pilgrim). Tagore Web 2025. https://www.tagoreweb.in/Verses/punashcho-91/tirthojatri-663 Accessed 30 August 2025. | 
| [15] | Yeats, William Butler. Adam‘s Curse. Poetry Foundation, 2025. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43285/adams-curse Accessed 18 June 2025. | 
| [16] | Yeats, William Butler. Autobiographies. London: Macmillan, 1955. P. 114-15. | 
APA Style
Mukherjee, A. K. (2025). Now I May Wither into the Truth: Re-reading Some Poems of W. B. Yeatsin the Middle Phase. History Research, 13(2), 96-102. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.history.20251302.16
ACS Style
Mukherjee, A. K. Now I May Wither into the Truth: Re-reading Some Poems of W. B. Yeatsin the Middle Phase. Hist. Res. 2025, 13(2), 96-102. doi: 10.11648/j.history.20251302.16
@article{10.11648/j.history.20251302.16,
  author = {Arun Kumar Mukherjee},
  title = {Now I May Wither into the Truth: Re-reading Some Poems of W. B. Yeatsin the Middle Phase
},
  journal = {History Research},
  volume = {13},
  number = {2},
  pages = {96-102},
  doi = {10.11648/j.history.20251302.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.history.20251302.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.history.20251302.16},
  abstract = {The poetry of W. B. Yeats covers almost three distinctive and successive periods in the history of English literature such as the late Victorian, Edwardian and the Modern period and the poetic stature he attained in due course virtually shows a zodiac range of interests expressed with a correspondingly strenuous maturity in form and style spanning over decades. The greatness of Yeats’ poetry lies in the simple fact that he could successfully integrate thoughts, feelings and ideas into a coherent body of experience. Apparently, the initial beginning of the poet in the fashion of the romantics and Pre-Raphaelites with an emerging drift to realism in the middle phase, hardly gives any hint of the complexity of Yeats’ major poems where the persona represents divergent claims to consciousness typical of a poetic universe (constituted mainly by three practical passions in his life, viz, poetry, love and Irish nationalism) which reserves room both for the crisp and the casual; the regal and the ribald; the mundane and the mysterious. However, a meticulous reading of Yeats’ poetry reveals a thorough progress towards making poetry not only a natural utterance for the poet, but also a symbol of a coveted identity - a ‘Unity of Being’ – an ideal which, for example, breathtakingly comes close to realization in a seminal piece like Sailing to Byzantium. The present article focuses on some poems taken from the middle period of Yeats’ poetry so as to trace an element of continuity in the Yeatsian poetics.
},
 year = {2025}
}
											
										TY - JOUR T1 - Now I May Wither into the Truth: Re-reading Some Poems of W. B. Yeatsin the Middle Phase AU - Arun Kumar Mukherjee Y1 - 2025/10/28 PY - 2025 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.history.20251302.16 DO - 10.11648/j.history.20251302.16 T2 - History Research JF - History Research JO - History Research SP - 96 EP - 102 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2376-6719 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.history.20251302.16 AB - The poetry of W. B. Yeats covers almost three distinctive and successive periods in the history of English literature such as the late Victorian, Edwardian and the Modern period and the poetic stature he attained in due course virtually shows a zodiac range of interests expressed with a correspondingly strenuous maturity in form and style spanning over decades. The greatness of Yeats’ poetry lies in the simple fact that he could successfully integrate thoughts, feelings and ideas into a coherent body of experience. Apparently, the initial beginning of the poet in the fashion of the romantics and Pre-Raphaelites with an emerging drift to realism in the middle phase, hardly gives any hint of the complexity of Yeats’ major poems where the persona represents divergent claims to consciousness typical of a poetic universe (constituted mainly by three practical passions in his life, viz, poetry, love and Irish nationalism) which reserves room both for the crisp and the casual; the regal and the ribald; the mundane and the mysterious. However, a meticulous reading of Yeats’ poetry reveals a thorough progress towards making poetry not only a natural utterance for the poet, but also a symbol of a coveted identity - a ‘Unity of Being’ – an ideal which, for example, breathtakingly comes close to realization in a seminal piece like Sailing to Byzantium. The present article focuses on some poems taken from the middle period of Yeats’ poetry so as to trace an element of continuity in the Yeatsian poetics. VL - 13 IS - 2 ER -