1.Purpose and significance of the paper

1.1 Purpose of the paper

This paper mainly aims to examine the influence of Charles Baudelaire, the representative poet of French symbolism, on William Butler Yeats’s poetry. Based on the poetical ideas of symbolism, the paper intends to compare and contrast the works of William Butler Yeats and Charles Baudelaire, thus exploring Yeats’s literary inheritance from Charles Baudelaire and his development of French symbolism by setting up his own symbolic language system.

1.2 Significance of the paper

William Butler Yeats, being regarded as one of the greatest Irish poets, is famous for the use of symbolism in his poems. While the Symbolist Movement, with Charles Baudelaire being one of the most influential pioneers, originated in France. The impact that French Symbolism made on Yeats is clearly reflected in his work. Though quantities of researches have been done to study the symbolism in both Yeats’s poems and Baudelaire’s poems. Seldom have people studied the relationship between the two great poets. By comparing and contrasting the works of William Butler Yeats and Charles Baudelaire, we can have better understanding of the development process of Yeats’s symbolism. Also, it provides us with a new perspective to study the symbolism in William Butler Yeats’s poems.

2.Literature review

2.1 Studies abroad

As early as in 1899, Arthur Symons, one of Yeats’s friends, a young poet and dramatist, has said in his book “The Symbolist Movement in Literature” that William Butler Yeats was one of the major successors of french symbolism. In recent years, professor Noreen Doody pointed out in his book “The Influence of Oscar Wilde on WB Yeats” that the impact of French symbolism on William Butler Yeats’s poems was great and clear.

2.2 Studies at home

At home, scholars like Huang Hairong hold the opinion that the symbolism in William Butler Yeats’s poems can be roughly divided into three phases: the early phase -- from 1889 to 1904, the middle phase -- from 1919 to 1925, and the late phase -- the years after 1925. Also, his poetic style of symbolism varies a lot among the three phases. At the very beginning, the symbolism in Yeats’s poems was very romantic, then in the second period, he managed to use symbolism quite skillfully. Finally, he moved on to set up his own symbolic language system and can freely use that in his work. It is generally accepted that French symbolism has played an important role in this transmutation. However, Fu Hao has put forward some different ideas in his paper “The Symbolism of Yeats”, he thought that whether William Butler Yeats was influenced by French symbolism or how much he was influenced by French symbolism was still open to question, while the philosophy of mysticism and some alleged supernatural spells originated in different religions did impact his symbolism a lot.