William Butler Yeats and Monumentalisation

Abstract

At the Nobel ceremony in December 1923, W.B. Yeats chose to speak about “The Irish Dramatic Movement”. In his lecture the poet paid homage to the efforts which brought about modern Ireland and focused his attention on the achievement of a group working together closing, most notably, on the contribution of close friends J.M. Synge and Lady Gregory. The Nobel Lecture represents a crucial step of the poet’s process of recognition of their and his own work, but also of his ability to mythologise and celebrate those he admired, mostly his circle of friends. The present work aims to explore the memorialising, rather, monumentalising process in W.B. Yeats, a remarkable aspect of his production, conspicuous in his late production, and to analyse the poetic and linguistic strategies adopted by him to this end. The article will conclude focussing on “The Municipal Gallery Revisited” as a monument poem.