NATIONAL IDENTITY AND MYSTICAL BEAUTY IN WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS' „CELTIC TWILIGHT”

The end of 19th century was generally a significant and transitional period, as from the beginning of the 20th, modernism was gradually replacing the Victorian era. However, the prospect of change was even more immediate in Ireland than anywhere else. The Irish hoped to escape from the colonial restrictions imposed by the state, and from the new century they already counted themselves among the free nations. Yeats shared the same spirit, and therefore the awarding of the Nobel Prize in 1923 had a symbolic meaning for him, since Ireland had just gained independence. And the poet used every possible occasion to point it out and replied to congratulatory letters in this way: "I consider myself to have received this award as a representative of Irish literature and not as an independent person. Welcome to the free state.” [Foster 2003, p. 656.]


Introduction.
William Butler Yeats, not only as a poet and playwright, but also as a fiction writer, is considered one of the greatest literary figures of the 20th century. However, in the group bound by the national identity, he still stood out with his distinctive vision and beliefs, as well as his poetic talent. He can even be referred to as the "crown of Irish poetic culture" and "ancestor of modern world poetry". The evidence of his poetic talent is not only his lyrics, poems or even dramaturgy, but his novels, essays, epistles and diaries, which made him famous. He earned the name of a great public figure and gave him a special place in the history of Ireland. "It was a talent that in many ways determined not only the contemporary Irish and English life and literature, but also the European literature of the next age, rather than the present day." In 1923, William Butler Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. "For his always inspiring poetry, which expresses the national spirit through the most difficult artistic methods". nation.") [Nobel Prize in Literature 1923. Citation date: 7 December 2014] Yeats, with his work and creativity, somehow tried to raise the consciousness of the Irish people. For the Irish, to strengthen their rooted sense of identity and nationhood by stimulating a new interest in Ireland. From his point of view, the development of this concept is served by the creation of literary works of the Celtic culture, mythological or folklore genre, since the society reflects the works of an epic nature. The Ireland imagined by Yeats was a free Ireland, as it once was and as it was to become again, but first it had to regain its freedom. to restore its true face and to reveal its true nature. Because there was chaos before the myths, England wanted to dominate its view: as if there was chaos in Ireland before the arrival of England and did not recognize that the Irish had already lived a great life before the arrival of the English; that in fact the Celtic race had torn the national identity from the ashes and if they had not forgotten everything, they would not have been able to lay a new boundary for the foundation of civilization; A boundary whose creation would be subject to the wishes of others and would be artificial. There is also an Irish forest inhabitant of old woman which in some stories is referred to by the author as "Little old woman", precisely because it was a symbol of Ireland. Yeats also called the face of the poor mother from folklore, the poor mother -a symbol of Ireland, and exaggerated it to show the contemporary image of the country. By the beginning of the 1800s, due to the influence and colonization of England, it is assumed that only half of the Irish nation could speak the Gaelic language; And later, the number of native language speakers decreased from four million to six hundred thousand. The British culture was gradually taking such a strong hold that practically nothing was being written in the Irish language, and moreover, the language was being lost in oral speech.
Against all this, Yeats argued in relation to the Irish nation that "among European nations we are perhaps the only ones in the age of ballads and epic works. The future will put some of our ballads with "Percy's Reliques".' (Alone, perhaps, among the nations of Europe we are in our ballad or epic age. Nationality and Literature' (lecture given on 19 May 1893)] Therefore, the belief that the inherent gift of unity of the Irish is an unbroken chain, and literature must serve from the past to the present, so that the nation can thereby reach a more fundamental level of Irishness. Yeats thought, that legends were the best means of achieving this goal, since ancient prose or poetry based on myths and folklore imprints itself deeply on the reader's mind, thereby influencing his thoughts and unconscious identity. Yeats's main concern, therefore, was to root his poetry in the ancient Irish roots, so that his poems could penetrate the minds of the people on a metaphysical level, where, by touching the unconscious or the mystical, he tried to form an idea of himself as Irish and to revive the unity and identity that had been dormant in them as a result of colonization feeling. Embedded in epic society, this idea of innate nationhood seemed insufficient to establish identity; For nationalism, which inspired the struggle for the liberation of Ireland, since "England had its own policy -the history of Ireland should begin from there, when it entered Ireland itself, it should be the beginning of the new era of Ireland, that is, the beginning of civilization and, in general, the beginning of its existence. He had to instill this in every man, he had to raise new generations with this faith, he had to appear as a savior in the eyes of those who pulled Ireland out of chaos, turned it into a nation, and was still hiding it.
It is against this background, when the intention of England to spread its influence on Ireland and to colonize it was clear and open, Yeats tried to prove with his work that the end of the 19th century was an era of epic and ballads for Ireland. Develops. The poet explored the stories and stories that have become legends, from the past millennia, to the future time of the next century. He fully maintained his individualism despite the transition period of the 20th century and the general political background in which Yeats had to achieve. In fact, it was a turning point in the history of the Irish nation. Therefore, using Celtic and mystical themes in his poetry, Yeats tried to transform beyond reality. Since art is crucial to the Irish nation's process of identity and awareness through history and mythology, Yeats draws heavily on mythology, ancient legend and folklore in his work. From his point of view, who would invent the past, the past was exploding in old stories-transmissions, in fairy tales, parables, proverbs. Yeats turned to folklore because he wanted to bring the past out of distorted stories and fairy tales, to select the outstanding ones, to invoke heroic characters and to revive pagan poetic faces. The poet also brings to life the stories he carefully hears from ordinary Irish people of the 19th century about their ordinary, everyday lives. Yeats's work is characterized by symbolism and allusive speech. He is able to convey a deeper, eternal meaning beyond the primary meaning of the word by means of a skillful arrangement of words. Unlike other modernist writers and especially poets who used free rhythm, Yeats remains a master of the traditional form.
In the collection entitled "Celtic Twilight ", which was first published in 1893, and in its final, completed form in 1902, it is divided into two parts and combines the stories that Yeats heard and collected before 1892, as well as samples of creativity created on the basis of the stories collected after the first edition with prose or dramaturgical samples, creates a characteristic mood of folklore, Irish mythological stories and fairy tales in the reader. "Celtic Twilight" consisting of unusual novels and a miniature cycle, in which the Irish world consisting of small but significant events is created as a result of the writer's great efforts, conveys the face of Ireland with meticulous accuracy. Yeats has impartially and carefully conveyed everything that he saw or heard in the Ireland of his modern period. To a certain extent, it can even be considered as an autobiographical work of the writer. Each story is structurally independent from each other, and the stories told in it are not connected with each other by any specific bond. Each of them has its own characteristics, in terms of duration, chronotype and development.
Considering that the 1880s and 1890s were the era of aestheticism in both Britain and Ireland, the so-called "Beauty" and its perception can be considered as the cornerstone uniting these two nations, since this metaphor has become a symbol of their characteristics and the convergence of their ideas. It is precisely from this period, and even earlier, that the poems, prose and lyrical works are collected in the collection "Celtic Twilight". The concept of beauty is often connected with mythology. Expressions such as "wild beauty", "eternal beauty" come from Irish legends and are part of Celtic culture: "He had frequently illustrated his verses with drawings, in which an unperfect anatomy did not altogether hide extreme beauty of feeling." "…a beautiful woman whose name is still a wonder by turf fires, died there sixty years ago; for our feet would linger where beauty has lived its life of sorrow to make us understand that it is not of the world." ["Celtic Twilight":2011] As Yeats's work suggests, legends that, although created in the past, have the power to influence the present and the future through art and beauty. "It may be that in a few years Fable, who changes mortalities to immortalities in her cauldron, will have changed Mary Hynes and Raftery to perfect symbols of the sorrow of beauty and of the magnificence and penury of dreams." "If beauty is not a gateway out of the net we were taken in at our birth, it will not long be beauty, and we will find it better to sit at home by the fire and fatten a lazy body or to run hither and thither in some foolish sport than to look at the finest show that light and shadow ever made among green leaves." ["Celtic Twilight":2011] Yeats paints the world for us: with bliss, beauty, joy, infinity, dance, abundance of divine joyful beings:" One day a woman that I know came face to face with heroic beauty, that highest beauty which Blake says changes least from youth to age, a beauty which has been fading out of the arts, since that decadence we call progress, set voluptuous beauty in its place." " One day a woman that I know came face to face with heroic beauty, that highest beauty which Blake says changes least from youth to age, a beauty which has been fading out of the arts, since that decadence we call progress, set voluptuous beauty in its place." ["Celtic Twilight":2011] The other world depicted by the poet in his description of great beauty is the stage to which man must aspire, and it is worth noting that he is thereby trying to emphasize the Gaelic world.

Conclusions.
William Butler Yeats' credo and literary endeavor are clear. All his works, lyrical, prose or dramatic, serve to raise the consciousness of the reader in general, and especially of the Irish people; He believed that literature should form the cultural identity of the country, without any political motives. Although he was not anglophobe and his contribution to English literature is great, the poet's main goal was to create an Irish identity free from the influence of English culture.