
Contents
7 Yeats, Eliot, and The Idea of Tradition
Get accessEDWARD LARRISY is Professor of Poetry and Head of the School of English at Queen’s University, Belfast, where he is affiliated to the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry. Before that he was Professor of English at the University of Leeds, where he led the AHRC project ‘Leeds Poetry 1950-1980.’ His books include Reading Twentieth Century Poetry: The Language of Gender and Objects (1990), Yeats the Poet: The Measures of Difference (1994) and Blake and Modern Literature (2006). He has edited Romanticism and Postmodernism (1999) and W.B. Yeats: The Major Works (2000). Professor Larrissy is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.
-
Published:28 January 2013
Cite
Abstract
The poetry of T. S. Eliot tells us something about W. B. Yeats's relationship to critical and aesthetic tendencies that were operative in Ireland, Britain, America, and continental Europe from the 1890s onwards. The two Irish poets both felt the need to respond to the innovations of French symbolism, especially as interpreted by Arthur Symons in The Symbolist Movement in Literature. A problem shared by Yeats and Eliot was that of relating what is, in its essentials, a modern picture of the mind to tradition. This chapter compares the views of Yeats and Eliot with respect to tradition, first looking at romanticism, focusing on what idea of romantic poetry is being promoted and how it is linked to nation. It then examines the implications of ‘country spiritism’. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the idea of culture in Yeats and Eliot based on the former's comments on Henry Grattan and John O'Leary.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2022 | 2 |
November 2022 | 3 |
December 2022 | 5 |
January 2023 | 7 |
February 2023 | 6 |
March 2023 | 8 |
April 2023 | 4 |
May 2023 | 1 |
June 2023 | 3 |
July 2023 | 5 |
August 2023 | 1 |
September 2023 | 7 |
October 2023 | 6 |
November 2023 | 5 |
December 2023 | 12 |
February 2024 | 5 |
March 2024 | 5 |
April 2024 | 5 |
May 2024 | 1 |
June 2024 | 1 |
July 2024 | 4 |
October 2024 | 2 |
November 2024 | 1 |
December 2024 | 7 |
January 2025 | 4 |
February 2025 | 2 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.