W. B. Yeats, George Hyde-Lees, and the Automatic Script Essays -- Yeat

W. B. Yeats, George Hyde-Lees, and the Automatic ScriptIn his biography of Yeats, Richard Ellmann remarks that Had Yeats died instead of marrying in 1917, he would have been remembered as a remarkable minor poet who achieved a diction more powerful than that of his contemporaries but who, except in a handful of poems, did not have untold to say with it (Ellmann 223). Yet with his marriage to Georgie Hyde-Lees on October 21st, 1917, a vast frontier of possibility opened before Yeats, and through the automatic writing of his wife, he entangle wisdom at last within his reach (Ellmann 224). Not only did the material within the automatic script (AS) help alleviate his anxieties about his matrimonial choice, but it also pointed his poetry in a new direction, bringing together the separate remnants of his life and thoughts. Dilemmas over women and rejection, the frightening politics of his time, years of dabbling in the occult for answers, older ideas found in Blake, his own musings ove r Mask and Daimon, and the loose system of spiritual thought gathered in Per Amica all these and an other(prenominal) elements found their way into the cauldron of the AS, and with the help of Yeats, Georgie, and several communicators, the medley was stirred and brewed for three years until everything began to come together, the final product being the system peck forth in A Vision. In the following essay, we will begin by examining the AS from a general standpoint, and then focus in to externalise how advice from the communicators helped Yeats as man and poet, how older ideas were transformed, and finally, we will outline the major ideas of the AS which formed the core of Yeatss later mythology in A Vision.A few years after their marriage, Georgie, who was probably promp... ...that he himself found valuable finds its into A Vision, it is nevertheless one of the strangest documents in the history of literature. And while there will always be doubts about just where all that wis dom really came from, whether from George, Yeats, or the communicators, it is undeniable that without the AS and the whole experience surrounding it, Yeats could not have written the eccentric and ingenious poetry of his middle to later years. WORKS CITEDEllmann, Richard. Yeats The Man and the Masks. New York W.W. Norton, 1948.Finneran, Richard J. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. 2nd Ed. New York Simon and Schuster Inc., 1996.Harper, George Mills. The Making of Yeatss A Vision. Vol 1. Carbondale Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.Unterecker, John. A Readers pull to William Butler Yeats. Syracuse Syracuse University Press, 1959. W. B. Yeats, George Hyde-Lees, and the Automatic Script Essays -- YeatW. B. Yeats, George Hyde-Lees, and the Automatic ScriptIn his biography of Yeats, Richard Ellmann remarks that Had Yeats died instead of marrying in 1917, he would have been remembered as a remarkable minor poet who achieved a diction more powerful than that of hi s contemporaries but who, except in a handful of poems, did not have a great deal to say with it (Ellmann 223). Yet with his marriage to Georgie Hyde-Lees on October 21st, 1917, a vast frontier of possibility opened before Yeats, and through the automatic writing of his wife, he tangle wisdom at last within his reach (Ellmann 224). Not only did the material within the automatic script (AS) help alleviate his anxieties about his marital choice, but it also pointed his poetry in a new direction, bringing together the separate remnants of his life and thoughts. Dilemmas over women and rejection, the frightening politics of his time, years of dabbling in the occult for answers, older ideas found in Blake, his own musings over Mask and Daimon, and the loose system of spiritual thought gathered in Per Amica all these and other elements found their way into the cauldron of the AS, and with the help of Yeats, Georgie, and several communicators, the medley was stirred and brewed for three years until everything began to come together, the final product being the system passel forth in A Vision. In the following essay, we will begin by examining the AS from a general standpoint, and then focus in to go to how advice from the communicators helped Yeats as man and poet, how older ideas were transformed, and finally, we will outline the major ideas of the AS which formed the core of Yeatss later mythology in A Vision.A few geezerhood after their marriage, Georgie, who was probably promp... ...that he himself found valuable finds its into A Vision, it is nevertheless one of the strangest documents in the history of literature. And while there will always be doubts about just where all that wisdom really came from, whether from George, Yeats, or the communicators, it is undeniable that without the AS and the whole experience surrounding it, Yeats could not have written the uncommon and ingenious poetry of his middle to later years. WORKS CITEDEllmann, Richard. Yeats T he Man and the Masks. New York W.W. Norton, 1948.Finneran, Richard J. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. 2nd Ed. New York Simon and Schuster Inc., 1996.Harper, George Mills. The Making of Yeatss A Vision. Vol 1. Carbondale Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.Unterecker, John. A Readers study to William Butler Yeats. Syracuse Syracuse University Press, 1959.