예이츠의 푸른 투구

Abstract

More often than not among Yeats's works of the early 20th century In the Seven Woods (1904) or Responsibilities (1914) have been chosen as a watershed from his early to the middle period, and Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910, 1912) has been neglected or treated as a 'transitory' work. Close investigation, however, reveals that Green Helmet is the 'new start' with its new heroic tones and subject matters. And when we read the play that gives the book its name, 'The Green Helmet', we find Yeats began to take Cuchulain as his 'mask'. He begins to try to identify himself with him. The causes may be many, but The Playboy of the Western World incident should have played a major role in transforming Yeats from an early Romantic poet to a 'mask-wearing' middle period poet. Or 'the theatre business' as a whole might have given him a new Weltanschaung. The heroic voiceof the poet in the book, 'What if I were not a poet,' should be taken in conjunction with Cuchulain's heroic action of the play.