ABSTRACT

Yeats completed 'The Wanderings of Oisin' in the late summer of 1888. The beginning of the change in style is usually ascribed to the period 19IO-I2, though there are signs of self-criticism as early as 1904; his phrase 'years afterwards' is deliberately vague. It should be linked to what he called the 'Body of Fate', physical circumstance, such as the friendship with Synge, the political embroilments of 1909-14, the reading of metaphysical poetry, the love and bitterness from his affair with Maud Gonne, as much as to any deliberate assumption of a new role; although in view of his highly conscious artistry this aspect cannot be overlooked. But statements such as these are of interest in considering his conception of style. He insists again and again on its difficulty, and the perpetual revisions of the early work are an indication of the importance of the labor limae:

It was many years before I understood that I had surrendered myself to the chief temptation of the artist, creation without toil.