W B Yeats\u27s ``a Vision\u27\u27: A Study Of Its Place In The History Of Ideas

This dissertation breaks down the structure of W. B. Yeats\u27s mystical book, A Vision, into its main components--the use of geometry to explain metaphysics, the use of the cyclic theory of history, and the use of reincarnation theory--and analyzes them according to their places in the history of Western and Eastern ideas. The dissertation also discusses the place of A Vision as a whole in the history of such books and in Yeats\u27s own development. As Yeats himself says, the philosophical ideas contained in A Vision are parts or offshoots of the Neoplatonic tradition (as it is known in the West), or the Perennial Philosophy, a term which embraces much of both Western and Eastern mystical thought. The dissertation provides a history of the main currents in these schools which are applicable to Yeats\u27s work, and provides examples of ideas and illustrations applicable to the book\u27s own philosophy and illustrations