Unlocking the Poetry of W. B. Yeats

<p><em>Unlocking the Poetry of W.B. Yeats</em> undertakes a thorough re-reading of Yeats' oeuvre as an extended meditation on the image and theme of the heart as it is evident within the poetry. It places the heart at the centre of a complex web of Yeatsian preoccupations and associations—from the biographical to the poetic and philosophical to the mythological and mystical. In particular the book seeks to unlock Yeats’ mystifying aesthetic vision via his understanding of the ancient Egyptian Weighing of the Heart ceremony. The work provides a chronological narrative arc that looks to use the theme of the heart as it recurs in the poetry in order to circumvent and overcome more established frameworks. Its purpose is to offer refreshing ways of conceptualizing and building alternatives to more deeply entrenched but not entirely satisfactory arguments that have been offered since Yeats' death in 1939 while demonstrating the centrality of the occult to Yeats' art.</p>