Abstract
Yeats is considered as renowned poet in the twentieth century. He created a unique world of symbolism in his poems. He was awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1923 and established a splendid and mysterious symbolic system featured by symbolism, aestheticism, modernism and romanticism. The thesis will analyze the application and development of symbolism in Yeats’ poems, explore the theoretic resources of symbolism and the combination of symbolic images and reality, and at last, explain the correlation between symbolism and philosophical concepts in his poems. Through the analysis of the application and development of symbolism in Yeats’ poetic works, this thesis will provide a new perspective for researching the symbolism of Yeats.
Keywords  Yeats   symbolism   development   images

叶芝是二十世纪一位公认的伟大诗人，在他的诗作里创建了一个独特的象征世界。他于1923年获得诺贝尔文学奖，并以象征主义、唯美主义、现代主义和浪漫主义的不同特点创造了精彩玄秘的象征体系。本文将分析叶芝诗歌作品对象征主义的运用和发展，研究叶芝象征主义的理论来源以及象征意象和生活现实的结合与演变，诠释叶芝诗歌中象征主义与哲学理念的关系。本文通过对叶芝象征主义发展和运用的分析，为研究叶芝诗歌的象征主义提供了一个新的视觉。
关键词  叶芝   象征主义   发展   意象

According to the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, symbol means to throw together. It derives from the Greek verb symballein. Its noun symbolon means “mark, emblem, token or sign”. It is an object, animate or inanimate, which represents or “stands for” something else.
In this way, there are two aspects in a symbol: One is the representing, the other is the represented. Symbolizing is equal to throwing the two aspects together. For words in and of themselves are signs, language is made up by a system of symbols. To use words is equal to using symbols. In a larger sense, literature which is a language artistically expressed is therefore an art of how to symbolize. The symbolic element can be traced back to the beginning of literature.