Yeats published a total of four books of In the Seven Woods over 19 year period starting from 1903 through 1922. A comparison of these four books demonstrates how constantly and diligently he repositioned the order of poems, not to mention correcting lines and changing the titles of some poems. It was 1908 when the order of poems was finally fixed. Yeats's habitual rearrangement of his poems suggests that the poet was still struggling to reshape his intention. The fixation of order of poems in the 1908 volume of In the Seven Woods then implies that Yeats finally found himself satisfied with the message he tried to orchestrate through the volume. If so, what is an organizational principle shaping the final version of In the Seven Woods? And what message is Yeats going to send through the book of poems? The purpose of this paper is to answer these to questions. Here my argument is that what Yeats finally chose for the skeleton of the 1908 and 1922 volume was a meditative structure. That is, the final order of poems has been evolved over the years in such a way as to reflect a meditative structure. In other words, In the Seven Woods, as a meditative sequence, consists of three stages of a composition of place, analysis and colloquy, which resemble the process in a meditative poem. Hence, his poetic message for the volume is also concerned with the purpose of meditation--specifically the Yeatsian concept of meditation--that is, transcending human limitations by dissolving antinomies. There are two axes in In the Seven Woods: one--vertical--axis is made by an individual poem; the other--horizontal--axis is built by an arrangement of poems which provides another poetic statement. Here we have an individual poem which, when viewed separately, mainly deals with his emotional turmoil and deep psychic unrest due to his troubled love experiences with Maud Gonne. Here we also have a whole group of poems which are carefully framed to elevate his personal bitterness and anxiety to the collective problems of human beings due to their inability to deal with antinomian principles. Through In the Seven Woods, the main character, or Yeats, sets out a meditative journey, a progressive movement toward a state beyond time or an aconceptual state where the meditator finds an answer for his quest for oneness. In the end, however, Yeats shows his strong skepticism about the possibility of achieving oneness.
목차
1. 1903 version of In the Seven Woods 2. Poems, 1899-1905(London Dublin, 1906) 3. Poems Lyrical and Narrative(Stratford-on-Avon, 1908) 4. Later Poems(1922) Works Cited Abstract
키워드
명상시명상구조시의 습관적인 재배열 (habitual rearrangement of poems시의 배열과 그 의미arrangement of poems as a poetic message시집의 구조적인 원칙organizational principle for the book of poems양자 대립이나 모순된 요소antinomian elements시간의 문제the problems caused by time합일의 추구search for oneness and dissolution of antinomies)meditative poemmeditative structure
저자
Yoo,Baekyun [ Baekseok College of Cultural Studies ]
예이츠 및 관련 분야에 대한 회원들의 학문 발전을 도모하고 연구 의욕을 고취시키기 위해 다음과 같은 일을 기획하고 수행함을 그 목적으로 한다.
1) 학술 발표회 및 세미나 개최
2) 학술 정보의 수집과 자료 교환
3) 연구논문집 『한국예이츠저널』(The Yeats Journal of Korea) 발간
4) 회원 상호간의 학문적 교류와 친목 도모