ARABIA IN YEATS' POETRY

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Pre-Raphaelite Style of the 1890s. However, the source of inspiration changed later, as F. F. Farag remarks. There is no doubt that the style and the subject matter of his early poems reveal a heterogeneous effort in the direction of the aesthetes whom his father taught him to admire. However, we cannot dispose of the whole period in this sweeping fashion. Although the Pre-Raphaelite diction of his poetry remained throughout this phase. Yeats's .inspiration after 1885 came from a different quarter. With the appearance of the Indian Missionary, Mohini Chatte ji on the scene, a new note entered Yeats's poetry.= Yeats was stimulated by the East, especially, by India and Arabia. The interest in India was not with the '~ndia of politicians or historians or travellers, but an India of pure romance which bears some subtle yet obvious relation to old romantic Ireland:! Similarly the interest in Arabia, too, related to an Arabia of 'pure romance' like the old romantic Ireland: 1 do not wish to overestimate the importance of Arabia and the Arabs in the study of Yeats, but his interest in them in fact stands on the same level as his interest in Indian philose, Japanese drama, occult practices, magic and the theo~ophy.~ W. B. Yeats attempted to establish a relationship between ~urope and Asia by bringing to light those elements which are reconcilable. He dreamed of sowing oriental thought in the west. In fact several artists and men of letters shared Yeats9 preoccupa- tion with Orient. Laurence Binyon studied Japanese and Chinese painting, Florence Farr and Sturge Moore studied Buddhism, Ezra Pound and Arthur WaIey translated Japanese and Chinese works. In America Emerson and Whitman turned to the East. T.S. Eliot applied himself to Sanskrit. Max Muller was publishing translations of the literature of the East. Once, in a letter to his friend Ethel Mannin, Yeats wrote: Our tradition only permit us to bless, for the arts are an extention of the beautitudes. Blessed be heroic death (Shakespeare's tragedies), blessed be heroic life (Cervantes), blessed be the wise (Balzac). Then there is a still more convincing reason why we'should not admit ppaganda into our lives. I shall write out the style of The Ambian Nights (which I am reading daily).' From 1912 to 1915 yeats was , influenced by Rabindranath Tagore, in whose work, he observed. a supreme culture full of purity and passion. This made Yeats re-examine the nature of his vork and he 'kept an eye cocked for other Eastern sages.*a Yeats, thus stated in a letter to Olivia Shakespeare:
Isl&c Studies, 29:l (1990) 3 I have constructed a myth but then one can believe in a myth-one only assents to philosophy- Heaven is an improvement of sense - one listens to music, one does not read Hegel's Logic. An oriental sage would understand even the very abstruse allusion to the L&l's Prayer.' Yeats' feelings towards Asia were mixed and based on the aspects which he wrote about. For instance, he was happy to find that '"The song of Amergin" is an ancient piece of pagan philosophy &I Ireldpd whose tone was Asiatic.'@ He wyt further to write in the introduction to the Upanidtadad that the Irish should have to discover in the East something ancestral.'' In fact, these are the ideas that he expressed in his work A V&onl@ after John Rhys had suggested, in 1888, in his writings that the home of the Celts might have been in Asia.11 The interest shown in Arabia by the Western people, especially in Britain, was very prominant in the romantic era and was at the highest level during 1850-1852. When a large number of translations, travel books and studies appeared about the legacy of Arabia, its language and life. The interest of Yeats and his contemporaries Arabia was aroused especially after the publica- tion of Richard Francis Burton's translation of the Altabian Night6 between 1885 and 1887. The Ambian Nigh& influenced Yeats to such an extent that he wrote a letter to his friend Ethel Mannin wishing to write some of his works in the manner and style of the AJcabian Night6.Iz The Altabian Nigm has been considered one of the greatest masterpieces of serious and sublime literature which stimulated and influenced Yeats greatly; and when he was asked in America which six books pleased and satisfied him best and most he placed The Ambian Night6 second to Shakespeare.ls The interest of Yeats in Arabia and things Arabic was stirred by many other factors also. Yeats was preoccupied with the occult and this led him to Eastern theosophy and to Arabic magic, philosophy and mysticism. This becomes very obvious since 1896 when he came to know about Al-Fmbi and Avicenna (Ibn Sl) not as philosophers but as magicians of whom hk wrote about in '~osa Alchemica'.!! In 1908, Yeats learnt something about the activities of the Arab '~osicrucians' and was influenced by the teachings of Ara ben Shemesh, an Arab teacher who was orieally discovered by Dr. Felkin. Yeats also showed a great interest in Arabic folklore. Some other sources about the Arabs and Arabia which fascinated Yeats were Charles Doughty's book ~~~ DuMa, T. E. Lawrence's work, The Seven MYim& & W4kfiz.m. Lord Dunsany's play The Tmt& a4 the A& and the translation of Seven Goeden Odw Pagan Ambia by W.S. Blunt and his wife. Yeats enjoyed the company of Sir Edward Ross, an authority on oriental languages from whom Yeats obtained some information about the East and Arabia." However, Yeats* interest in Arabia can be observed in the following letter he sent to lady Gregory:
Page 1: Islamic Studies (Islamabad) 29:1 (1
Page 5 and 6: And thus declared that Arab lady:"
Page 7: 38 Islamic Studies, 29 : 1 ( 1 W0 )

ARABIA IN YEATS' POETRY

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