Imagination and Time : The Importance of Memory inThe Tower by W. B. Yeats

Abstract

W. B. Yeats’s poem ’The Tower’ has been described by critics as one of his best works, at the same time as the poem has been considered to be directionless and confusing. This thesis argues that the poem’s depiction of memory might explain the connection between the poem’s three parts, as well as the purpose of its images, focusing mainly on the third part and the image of the fishermen. The analysis intends to show how memory is connected to Yeats’s relationship with Ireland, the imagination, and with time, and that ‘The Tower’ shows a renewed belief in memory and the power of the imagination, and its ability to transcend reality. By describing the centrality of memory in my reading of the poem, I suggest how this impacts on an interpretation, primarily how it may make the poem’s three parts to appear more connected, its images to be of purpose to the text, and as a result make the poem seem less self-contradicting, and more coherent and meaningfully structured.