"Stylistic Arrangements"

A Study of William Butler Yeats's A Vision

Barbara Croft

1987
196 pages
ISBN 0838750877

Throughout his career William Butler Yeats was preoccupied with the tension between antinomies, and A Vision in his major attempt to unite these contradictions in a work of art, a "stylistic arrangement." A Vision is therefore of obvious importance to an understanding of Yeats's mind and his work as a whole. In this tightly focused study Barbara Croft examines the development of A Vision and carefully reevaluates it as an artistic creation. As part of her critical analysis, she makes two important contributions to the reading of this work: first, by distinguishing between the 1925 version and that of 1937, toward which Yeats took a decidedly different attitude; and second, by considering the surrounding fictional and introductory material both as important literary documents in themselves and as integral parts of the larger work.
"Stylistic Arrangements" begins by examining the major critical responses to A Vision by scholars such as Vendler, Frye, and Bloom. Since Croft is also concerned with Yeats's changing style, some attention is given to his early writing on the supernatural, notably his study of Blake and Per Amica Silentia Lunae.

About the author:

Barbara L. Croft was first introduced to the work of W.B. Yeats by Dr. James Olney when she was an undergraduate student of literature at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Professor Robert O'Driscoll of St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, encouraged her to pursue her study of Yeats and helped her continue her early work on A Vision.
A former teacher of literature and composition both in Toronto, Ontario, where she lived for seven years, and in the United States, Dr. Croft now writes fiction and does free-lance public relations work. She also writes for The Des Moines Register. She and her husband live in Des Moines.