The island of statues magic and alchemy in Yeats's poetic

Abstract EN

Pastoral poetry was one of the strongest elements that contributed to the basis of Romantic poetry.

Both shared a love of nature, distance from city life and supported the political satire of the urban style of life and civilisation.

Both were relevant to the early Yeatsian mood due to his reactions to emotional, cultural, aesthetical, mystical and political problems.

He created an Arcadian setting for some of his early poems: ‘The Song of the Happy Shepherd’, ‘The Sad Shepherd’ and also his poetic drama, The Islands of Statues.

This paper sheds new light on the use of magic and alchemy in Yeats’s The Island of Statues, and explores other shreds that contribute to the dramatic fabric of this poetic drama, for example, The Arabian Nights and Greek mythology.