/ 
Lyrical Subject in the Poem "The Lover Tells of the Rose in His Heart"
DOI of the paper: 10.15382/sturIII201750.26-35
Abstract
The gives a detailed examination of one of W. B. Yeats’s early poems, The Lover Tells of the Rose in Heart, with special emphasis on its lyrical subject. The study focuses on Yeats’s idea of the mask. The mask is considered to be the primary poetic device used by the poet in order to acquire the ideal self. The process of self-cognition, or “selfremaking”, turns out to be inextricably mixed with love and poetry. In their turn, love and poetry in The Lover Tells of the Rose in His Heart appear to be interrelated in a very specific way. Without love, the poetic ideal is incomprehensible; without poetry, it is inexpressible. These observations are supported and specified by the analysis of the structural features of the poem, namely its rhythm, rhyme, grammar and vocabulary. Finally, the paper discusses the symbol of the Rose in the poem. The symbol appears to be of great importance to Yeats because of its universal nature. The Rose exemplifies the idea of the Unity of Being, one of the central concepts in Yeats’s philosophy. Contrary to some other interpretations of the poem, the present paper sees the lyrical subject primarily as the poet seeking the poetic ideal, the Rose, rather than as the lover expressing his feelings to his mistress.
Keywords
poetry, W. B. Yeats, Yeats’s early poems, poetic ideal, character, mask
References
Gorbunov A. N., Poslednij romantik. Poehziya U. B. Jejtsa, Moscow, 2015, 79-80.
Kruzhkov G. M., W. B. Yeats: Issledovanija i perevody, Мoscow, 2008.
Tolmachyov V. M., ed., Anglij skaya poehziya rubezha vekov i tvorchestvo U. B. Jejtsa, in: Zarubezhnaya literatura konca XIX — nachala XX vekov, Moscow, 2014.
Bloom H. Yeats. Oxford, 1970. P. 125
Carlisle G. The Esoteric Codex: Rosicrucianism. Raleigh, 2015.
Ellmann R. Yeats: The Man and the Masks. L., 1987.
Larrissy E. Introduction // The First Yeats. Poems by W. B. Yeats / Ed. by E. Larrissy Manchester, 2011.
Mahaffey V. States of Desire: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and the Irish Experiment. Oxford, 1998.
Putzel S. Reconstructing Yeats: The Secret Rose and The Wind Among the Reeds. Dublin, 1986.
Ross D. Critical Companion to William Butler Yeats. N. Y., 2009.
Sarkar S. K. W. B. Yeats. Poetry and Plays. New Delhi, 2002.