Defamiliarization In W。 B。 Yeats’ “The Second Coming”

Abstract William Butler Yeats is one of the leading poets in English poetry of the 20th century。 He is a great modernist poet。 A great many of critics make numerous analysis and studies of Yeats's poems from different perspectives, such as politics, gender, sociology, and post-colonialism respectively。 “The Second Coming” is one of the most famous poems of Yeats。 The poem is mostly based on the Biblical content。 The setting of the poem is quite bleak。 And thus many think the new era falls with the horror and terrifying scenes and fates of the mankind。 However, due to Yeats’ mythopoesis and the analysis of defamiliarization, with which he creates the unfamiliar scenes from the familiar mythologies and draws us into thinking the fate of humankind in his last few lines of the poem。 The author argues that the outcome may not as pessimistic as it is described and the mankind’s fate is yet to be disclosed。74885

Key words: William Butler Yeats; The Second Coming; Bible; mythopoesis; defamiliarization

威廉·巴特勒·叶芝的“第二次圣临”中的陌生化

摘要威廉·巴特勒·叶芝是二十世纪英语诗歌的领导诗人。他是一位伟大的现代zhuyi诗人。很多评论家都从不同的视角对叶芝的诗歌进行大量的分析，分别是政治、性别、社会学、和后殖民zhuyi。第二次圣临是叶芝最著名的诗歌之一。这首诗歌基于圣经的内容，背景很是荒凉。因此很多人会认为新的时代会是恐惧与灾难的降临。但是，通过从陌生化角度对叶芝的创造神话的分析，他从熟悉的神话创作中创造了让人陌生的场景，这样的陌生化使我们思考叶芝最后几行诗歌中所探讨的人类命运。笔者认为结果或许并不是像描述的那么悲观，人类的命运结局还尚未被揭晓。

毕业论文关键词：威廉·巴特勒·叶芝；第二次圣临；圣经；神话创作；陌生化

Contents

1。Introduction1

1。1 William Butler Yeats。1

1。2 The Scholarship on William Butler Yeats’ works。1

1。3 Defamiliarization2

2。Chapter One  Bible elements in The Second Coming。4

2。1 Genesis and Exodus in The Second Coming5

3。Chapter Two  Mythology and Mythopoesis6

3。1 Mythology6

3。2 Reflection of the real world。6

3。3 Yeats' religion practice。7

4。Chapter Three  Defamilarazation in The Second Coming8

4。1 Defamilarazation8

4。2 Explanation of The Second Coming8

5。Conclusion。10

References11

1。 Introduction

1。1 William Butler Yeats

    William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), who wins Nobel Prize for literature in 1923, is one of the leading poets in English poetry of the 20th century。 He is also a very important contributor to the Irish Literary Revival in the first half of the 20th century。 论文网

    In his early career, many poets such as William Blake, Shelley and Pre-Raphaelites influenced him a lot。 Influenced by them, Yeats has created pictures of the ideal life and his language in his early Period is dreamy, evocative and mystic。 In his early Poetry, he makes use of many kinds of mythological allusions from lrish mythology, Greek mythology, Hindu mythology and allusions from Christian Legends。 These allusions help Yeats imagine splendidly and create mythological and beautiful world to contrast the sordid reality。 Thus Yeats’s purposes of writing are realized。 So these allusions have great literary value to his later Poetry。

    Yeats' thematic emphasis could be rather profound。 During the 1920s and 1930s, he even created a mystical theory of the universe that explained the human history, imagination, and mythology according to a mysterious set of symbols that presented in his book A Vision。  However, in his greatest poems, he mitigates this profoundness with a focus on his own experience into the poems。 There are own deep feelings。 Yeats always blended times that the poems of mysteries seem mysteriously imagistic or theoretically abstract, however, and the veil and abstraction is often lifted once one gains an understanding of how the poet's led his life relate to the poem。 And that can be seen in his poem “The Second Coming”, which shall be discussed thoroughly at a later moment。