Yeats, Coleridge and the Romantic Sage

Yeats, Coleridge and the Romantic Sage

Yeats, Coleridge and the Romantic Sage Matthew Gibson

First published in Great Britain 2000 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-41066-8 ISBN 978-0-230-28649-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230286498 First published in the United States of America 2000 by ST. MARTIN S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-23022-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gibson, Matthew, 1967 Yeats, Coleridge, and the romantic sage / Matthew Gibson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-23022-7 (cloth) 1. Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865 1939 Knowledge Literature. 2. Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865 1939 Philosophy. 3. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772 1834 Philosophy. 4. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772 1834 Influence. 5. English poetry 19th century History and criticism. 6. Romanticism Great Britain. 7. Metaphysics in literature. 8. Philosophy in literature. I. Title. PR5908.L5 G53 2000 821'.8 dc21 99 046990 Matthew Gibson 2000 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-74625-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00

Contents Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations A Note on the Text vi viii xi Introduction 1 Part I Personality 9 1 Phantasmagoria: the Personality of Coleridge in the Earlier Prose of Yeats 11 2 Escaped from Isolating Method : Coleridge as Sage in Yeats s 1930 Diary 29 Part II Transcendence and Immanence 55 3 Reason and Understanding: Coleridge s Philosophical Influence on Yeats 57 4 Wisdom, Magic, Sensation : Coleridge s Supernatural Poems in the Later Poetry of Yeats 86 Part III Metaphor 115 5 Natural Declension of the Soul : Yeats and the Mirror 117 6 Towards Berkeley s Roasting Spit : Coleridge and Metaphors of Unity 149 Conclusion 175 Appendix: Yeats s Coleridge Collection 177 Notes 184 Bibliography 208 Index 216 v

Acknowledgements I should like to extend thanks to the following for the help they have given me in preparing this book: Michael Baron, Carol Peaker, Svetlana Salowska, Deirdre Toomey and Anne Varty, all of whom, in different ways, have helped with either the collection of material or with the preparation of the manuscript. Special thanks are due to the library of State University of New York at Stonybrook, and to John Kelly and Roger Nyle Parisious for providing me with copies of unpublished material. Especial thanks, however, are due to Peter Lewis, for having read over earlier drafts of chapters and suggesting changes when I was first preparing this work as a doctoral dissertation, and, of course, to Warwick Gould for his substantial effort when supervising that initial thesis and for providing subsequent advice. The author and publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce copyright material: The extracts from W. B. Yeats, Autobiographies (London: Macmillan, 1955), Essays and Introductions (London and New York: Macmillan, 1961), Explorations, selected by Mrs W. B. Yeats (London: Macmillan, 1962; New York, Macmillan, 1963), The Variorum Edition of the Poems of W. B. Yeats, ed. Peter Allt and Russell K. Alspach (London and New York: Macmillan, 1966), are reproduced by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd, on behalf of Michael B. Yeats. The extracts from Yeats s manuscript Diary, begun at Rapallo (1930) are reproduced by permission of A. P. Watt Ltd, on behalf of Michael B. Yeats and Anne Yeats. The extracts from W. B. Yeats and T. Sturge Moore: Their Correspondence, 1901 37, ed. Ursula Bridge (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; New York: Oxford University Press, 1953), are reproduced by permission of Routledge. The extracts from The Letters of W. B. Yeats, ed. Allen Wade (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954; New York: Macmillan, 1955), together with vi

Acknowledgements vii extracts from unpublished letters, are reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press. The extracts from A Vision by W. B. Yeats; copyright 1937 by W. B. Yeats; copyright renewed 1965 by Bertha Georgie Yeats and Anne Butler Yeats, are reproduced by permission of Simon & Schuster. The extracts from Mythologies by W. B. Yeats, copyright 1959 by Mrs W. B. Yeats, are reproduced by permission of Simon & Schuster. The extracts from Autobiographies by W. B. Yeats, copyright 1916, 1936 by Macmillan Publishing Company, copyrights renewed 1944, 1964 by Bertha Georgie Yeats, are reproduced by permission of Simon & Schuster. The extracts from Explorations by W. B. Yeats, copyright 1962 by Mrs W. B. Yeats, are reproduced by permission of Simon & Schuster. The extracts from Essays and Introductions by W. B. Yeats, copyright 1961 Mrs W. B. Yeats, are reproduced by permission of Simon & Schuster. The extracts from the poems His Bargain, The Tower, An Acre of Grass, The Seven Sages, Meditations in Time of Civil War, Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931, Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen, Byzantium, Vacillation, To Dorothy Wellesley, Supernatural Songs, The Phases of the Moon and Long-legged Fly are reproduced by permission of Simon & Schuster from The Variorum Edition of the Poems of W. B. Yeats, ed. Peter Allt and Russell K. Alspach; copyright 1928 by Macmillan Publishing Company; copyrights renewed 1956 by Georgie Yeats; copyright 1933, 1934 by Macmillan Publishing Company; copyright renewed 1961, 1962 by Bertha Georgia Yeats; copyright 1940 by Georgie Yeats; copyright renewed 1968 by Bertha Georgie Yeats, Michael Butler Yeats, and Anne Yeats. The extracts from The Variorum Edition of the Plays of W. B. Yeats, ed. Russell K. Alspach, copyright 1966 by Russell K. Alspach, are reproduced by permission of Simon & Schuster. Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.

viii List of Abbreviations List of Abbreviations The standard works by W. B. Yeats and S. T. Coleridge listed below are cited in the text by standard abbreviations, including volume number where appropriate, and page number. Works listed here are not included in the Bibliography at the end of the book. Yeats Au Autobiographies (London: Macmillan, 1955). AV B A Vision (London: Macmillan, 1962). CM W. B. Yeats: A Census of the Manuscripts, by Conrad A. Balliet with the assistance of Christine Mawhinney (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1990). Col. L1,3 The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats, vol. 1: 1865 1895, ed. John Kelly and Eric Domville; vol. 3: 1901 4, ed. John Kelly and Ronald Schuchard (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986, 1994). CV A A Critical Edition of Yeats s A Vision (1925), ed. George Mills Harper and Walter Kelly Hood (London: Macmillan, 1978). E&I Essays and Introductions (London and New York: Macmillan, 1961). Ex Explorations, sel. Mrs W. B. Yeats (London: Macmillan, 1962; New York: Macmillan, 1963). L The Letters of W. B. Yeats, ed. Allan Wade (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954; New York: Macmillan, 1955). LTSM W. B. Yeats and T. Sturge Moore: Their Correspondence, 1901 1937, ed. Ursula Bridge (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; New York: Oxford University Press, 1953). Mem Memoirs: Autobiography First Draft, journal transcribed and edited by Denis Donoghue (London: Macmillan, 1972; New York: Macmillan, 1973). Myth Mythologies (London and New York: Macmillan, 1959). MYV1,2 The Making of Yeats s A Vision : A Study of the Automatic Script, by George Mills Harper, 2 vols (London: Macmillan, 1987). viii

List of Abbreviations ix NC NLI MS OBMV UPAN UP1 UP2 VP VPl VSR WWB1,2,3 YA YAACTS YL A New Commentary on the Poems of W. B. Yeats, by A. Norman Jeffares (London: Macmillan, 1984). Manuscript, National Library of Ireland (to be followed by number). The Oxford Book of Modern Verse, 1895 1935, chosen by W. B. Yeats (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936). The Ten Principal Upanishads, trans. Shree Purohit Swāmi and W. B. Yeats (London and Boston: Faber & Faber, 1937). Uncollected Prose by W. B. Yeats, vol. 1, ed. John P. Frayne (London: Macmillan; New York: Columbia University Press, 1970). Uncollected Prose by W. B. Yeats, vol. 2, ed. John P. Frayne and Colton Johnson (London: Macmillan, 1975; New York: Columbia University Press, 1976). The Variorum Edition of the Poems of W. B. Yeats, ed. Peter Allt and Russell K. Alspach (New York: Macmillan, 1957). To be cited from the corrected third printing of 1966 or later printings. The Variorum Edition of the Plays of W. B. Yeats, ed. Russell K. Alspach assisted by Catherine C. Alspach (London and New York: Macmillan, 1966). To be cited from the corrected second printing of 1966 or later printings. The Secret Rose, Stories by W. B. Yeats: A Variorum Edition, ed. Warwick Gould, Phillip L. Marcus and Michael J. Sidnell (London: Macmillan, 1992). To be cited from this second edition, revised and enlarged from the 1981 Cornell University Press edition. The Works of William Blake, Poetic, Symbolic, and Critical, ed. with lithographs of the illustrated Prophetic Books, and a memoir and interpretation by Edwin John Ellis and William Butler Yeats, 3 vols (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1893). Yeats Annual, ed. Warwick Gould (London: Macmillan, 1982 ), to be followed by volume number. Yeats: An Annual of Critical and Textual Studies 4, ed. Richard J. Finneran (Ann Arbor: UMI Press, 1986), to be followed by volume number. Edward O Shea, A Descriptive Catalog of W. B. Yeats s Library (New York and London: Garland Publishing,

x List of Abbreviations YVP1,2,3 1985). To be followed by item number (or page number preceded by p. ). Yeats s Vision Papers (London: Macmillan, 1992), George Mills Harper (General Editor) assisted by Mary Jane Harper, vol. 1: The Automatic Script: 5 November 1917 18 June 1918, ed. Steve L. Adams, Barbara J. Frieling and Sandra L. Sprayberry; vol. 2: The Automatic Script: 25 June 1918 29 March 1920, ed. Sandra L. Sprayberry; vol. 3: Sleep and Dream Notebooks, Vision Notebooks 1 and 2, Card File, ed. Robert Anthony Martinich and Margaret Mills Harper. Coleridge AP BL1,2 CL1,2,etc. CN CP EOT1,2,3 LL1,2 LPR TT Anima Poetae, from the Unpublished Note-books of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. Ernest Hartley Coleridge (London: William Heinemann, 1895). Biographia Literaria, ed. James Engell and W. Jackson Bate, 2 vols (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983); Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. Kathleen Coburn, vol. 7. The Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. Earl Leslie Griggs, 6 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956). The Notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. Kathleen Coburn (and Merton Christensen, vols 3 and 4), 4 vols (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957 90). The Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. James Dykes Campbell (London: Macmillan, 1925 [YL 404]). Essays on His Times, ed. David V. Erdmann, 3 vols (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978); Collected Works, vol. 3. Lectures, 1808 1819, ed. R. A. Foakes, 2 vols (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987); Collected Works, vol. 5. Lectures 1795 on Politics and Religion, ed. Lewis Patton and Peter Mann (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971); Collected Works, vol. 1. Table Talk and the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel, etc., Morley s Universal Library (London & New York: George Routledge & Sons, 1884 [YL 406]).

A Note on the Text The words Mask and Daimon, terms Yeats redefined over several years, are frequently written in italics. This is so as to place the terms, which Yeats used in a variety of works, in the firm context of A Vision, whose terminology is almost entirely italicised. This does not mean that when written in roman the terms are not frequently compatible with their description in A Vision, but simply that they are being used more in terms of the system as portrayed in other works, such as The Trembling of the Veil (1922), or indeed his poetry. xi