Abstract

William Butler Yeats is the most widely admired and intensively studied poet of the twentieth century. Very few of the critics have noticed the theme of time in his poetry concerning the mystical man. As a matter of fact, the theme of time is a thread to grasp Yeats’s mystical man in his poetry as a whole. Time’s destructive power on man associated with mystical theme has been shown clearly in Yeats’s poetry. As the useful means to combat time’s deadly workings, love for his beloved and love for idealized Ireland transcend the temporal limitation and achieve eternity. Memory as the continuation of love is another suggestive way to defeat time. Art has also the great power to withstand time’s destruction and brings eternity to man. Three distinctive features of Yeats’s poetry—a form of literature, a form of philosophy and a belief in nationality are hammered into the unity of the time theme in his mystical man.

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