Poses the theory that Yeats' poems can be viewed as a "book" that tells a story, the narrating persona being a fictive projection of Yeats the poet. (JC)

The notion of literature's difficulty must have begun with its first interpreter. Biblical readings sometimes allegorized scripture into moral precept, while occult readings (i.e., Gnostic writings) often carried an implication that such texts are either for an elite readership or represent the essence of a tradition of spiritual truth under…