This Composite Voice: The Role of W.B. Yeats in James Merrill's Poetry

by Bauer,Mark A.

• ISBN13: 9780415966375
• ISBN10: 041596637X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Readers of James Merrill's poetry have long noted affinities and contrasts between Merrill and Yeats.This Composite Voiceis the first in depth examination of the extensive history and particularly vexed nature of this lifelong poetic relationship. It draws on little-known biographical material, uncollected poems, manuscript variants, and annotations found in Merrill's copies of Yeats poems, essays, andA Vision, as well as a close examination of Merrill's better-known writing, to establish the many ways in which Merrill contends with the older poet's haunting personality and poetic accomplishment.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	xiii
Chapter One	3	(48)
Prelude: Merrillian Influence, Kimon Friar, and Yeats	3	(29)
Yeats in Merrill's Early Poems: Moving from Floodedness to Struggle	32	(19)
Chapter Two	51	(54)
Prelude: First Readings of Yeats's A Vision	51	(5)
Braving the Fire: Postures of Nonchalance in the Early Ouija Board Poems	56	(27)
Interlude: Returning to Yeats's A Vision	83	(2)
Merrill's Dialogues of Self and Soul	85	(20)
Chapter Three	105	(50)
Prelude: Reading Yeats's Essays and Introductions	105	(5)
Observing Yeats through Merrill's Changing Lights	110	(45)
Yeats in ``Ephraim'': The Master's Ghostly Presence	111	(7)
Yeats in Mirabell: Parody and Affiliation	118	(14)
Yeats in Scripts: Abjection and Apotheosis	132	(18)
Yeats in ``The Higher Keys'': Fading into Mastery	150	(5)
Chapter Four	155	(30)
A Haunted Mastery: Yeats after Sandover	155	(15)
Coda: Yeats's Merrill, Merrill's Bloom	170	(15)
Appendix A Merrill's Antithetical Use of ``Sailing to Byzantium'' in ``About the Phoenix''	185	(110)
Appendix B Merrill's Early Reading in Metaphysical and Psychological Topics	295
Appendix C Manuscript Variations in Mirabell and Scripts	197	(4)
Notes	201	(54)
Works Cited	255	(8)
Index	263	(8)
Copyright Acknowledgments	271