An Interpretation of Ecological Images in William Yeats’ Poems from the Perspective of New Historicism

Abstract

There are many descriptions of the environment in William Yeats’ poems. From the perspective of new historicism, this paper analyzes the ecological images of poetry from two aspects: the historicity of the text and the textuality of history. Ecological images are those depicting nature and cities. Among them, birds, roses, and Innisfree are the classic ones. Through these images, William Yeats concerns the relationship between the ecology and people. The historicity of the text presents the historical reality of Ireland and Irish life experience. Then, based on the function of literary texts which work as an ecological reality, the thesis explores the assimilation and arrogance of humans in constructing Irish life experience. The textuality of history focuses on fiction and historic reality. Through the images, Irish ecology enters the public. Moreover, William Yeats applies defamiliarization and intertextuality to contrasting the authoritative history and offering a fresh history.