The use of myth in literature serves as a powerful tool for modern poets and critics to bring order and meaning to the chaos of contemporary life. Emerging in response to the fragmented and disillusioned ethos of the twentieth century, myth offers a structured and symbolic framework that poets like Yeats, Eliot, and Auden have employed to reconcile their disordered world with timeless archetypes. Unlike illustrative metaphors that clarify by comparison, the sacramental use of myth integrates symbol and object, imbuing the poem with layered complexity and drawing on the rich connotations of shared cultural narratives. This approach requires an act of faith from both poet and reader: the poet must embed myth as a dynamic referent, and the reader must engage with its inherent symbolic depth, enriching the experience of the poem. By invoking myth as a "stockpile of common imagery," poets connect their personal visions to a broader, universal order, transforming chaotic individual experiences into coherent artistic expressions. As T.S. Eliot famously remarked regarding Ulysses, myth provides a method of "controlling, ordering, and giving significance" to the otherwise futile and anarchic panorama of modern history, reaffirming its value as a vital artistic and critical strategy.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1960.
