W.B. Yeats on ‘Asia’(and ‘Ireland’): an ideogrammic approach

For some people the association of W. B. Yeats with Asia will suggest references to Byzantium, for others it will suggest India, and others still will think of Japan and China. Yeats made both explicit and implicit references to Asia. Many experts doubt that Yeats really or “correctly” understood the Asian cultural references that he found inspiring for his work and that he cherry-picked for his own purposes. Others doubt that it really mattered, since he turned everything he touched to his own idiosyncratic use anyway. Yeats’ work is abundant and varied and Yeats’s “Asia” pervades much of it. Ezra Pound, following the lead of Ernest Fenollosa, proposed “the ideogrammic method (the examination and juxtaposition of particular specimens—e. g. particular works, passages of literature) as an implement for acquisition and transmission of knowledge”. This study collates Yeats’ references to Asia from letters and publications throughout his life in order to provide an accumulated base for what Asia meant for Yeats.