The Symbolism of Poetry by W.B. Yeats — Read

I.

'Symbolism, as seen in the writers of our day, would have no value if it / were not seen also, under one disguise or another, in every great / imaginative writer,' writes Mr. Arthur Symons in _The Symbolist Movement / in Literature_, a subtle book which I cannot praise as I would, because it / has been dedicated to me; and he goes on to show how many profound writers / have in the last few years sought for a philosophy of poetry in the / doctrine of symbolism, and how even in countries where it is almost / scandalous to seek for any philosophy of poetry, new writers are following / them in their search. We do not know what the writers of ancient times / talked of among themselves, and one bull is all that remains of / Shakespeare's talk, who was on the edge of modern times; and the / journalist is convinced, it seems, that they talked of wine and women and / politics, but never about their art, or never quite seriously about their / art. He is certain that no one, who had a philosophy of his art or a / theory of how he should write, has ever made a work of art, that people / have no imagination who do not write without forethought and afterthought / as he writes his own articles. He says this with enthusiasm, because he / has heard it at so many comfortable dinner-tables, where some one had / mentioned through carelessness, or foolish zeal, a book whose difficulty / had offended indolence, or a man who had not forgotten that beauty is an / accusation.