intellectual heft.

If I say “white” or “purple” in an ordinary line of poetry, they evoke emotions so exclusively that I cannot say why they move me; but if I bring them into the same sentence with such obvious intellectual symbols as a cross or a crown of thorns, I think of purity and sovereignty. Furthermore, innumerable meanings, which are held to “white” or to “purple” by bonds of subtle suggestion, and alike in the emotions and in the intellect, move visibly through my mind, and move invisibly beyond the threshold of sleep, casting lights and shadows of an indefinable wisdom on what had seemed before, it may be, but sterility and noisy violence.

As we can see, Yeats, though inspired by French symbolism, was already evolving a sensibility distinct from its more abstract and aesthetic use of symbols. As his poetic vision developed and deepened, Yeats' ideas of symbolism became entwined with the concept of the “unity of being,” a state in which art and life, intellect and emotion, and modernity and tradition become one. This is reminiscent of William Blake’s philosophy of the “marriage of contraries.”

An example of symbols expressing the unity of being can be found in Yeats' poem “Among the Schoolchildren,” where the image of the chestnut tree becomes fused with the symbol of the leaf, and that of the dancer with the dance.

O chestnut tree, great rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?

Further, for Yeats, symbolism became a vehicle to convey a concrete, precise meaning drawn from his personal experiences, philosophy, and Irish tradition. Some of his symbols are highly original, such as “the gyres,” (Yeats’ conception of history as an ever-widening, spinning spiral), while others impart fresh meaning to perennial motifs, such as “the rose,” “the staircase,” “the tower,” and so on. Other poems make symbols out of historical facts and places, such as Byzantium, as we see in “Sailing to Byzantium:”

O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

In this poem, Byzantium becomes symbolic of the state in which art and reality become one and the poet achieves immortality. The symbols of “gyre,” “gold,” “dying animal,” and the bird that sings on the golden bough reinforce the idea of the self being purified and remade, reinforcing the perfection of Byzantium. Thus, every individual symbol amplifies the central symbol at the heart of the poem, illustrating the rich, complex way Yeats used images and motifs.

WB Yeats, "the Master of Symbolism" acquired his taste from the French literati, who taught him how the use of melodic, rythmic, and emotive words can convey a spiritual meaning upon the reader.

To Yeats, the symbol is the missing link between the metaphor and the romantic ideal. The use of symbols is a higher literary strategy which moves the imagination, as well as the heart and the spirit. He is quoted as saying: 'metaphors are not profound enough to be moving,' which is his reason behind providing rich, vivid, nostalgic, and poignant symbology in his works.

In his Symbolism and Poetry, he conveys the need that these symbols are direct, short, to the point, and rich enough to inspire. He understands that the use of well-selected symbols entice and enrich the entire literary experience.