Subversive pseudo-dialogic: W.B. Yeats's use of the dialogic to present the monologic.

The application of Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of the dialogic provides unique insight into the poetry and plays of W.B. Yeats. Though this early twentieth century Irish writer favored poetry over the novel form on which Bakhtin based his studies, his compositions can be better understood and his intentions further elucidated in light of Bakhtin's explanations of dialogic and monologic writing. Yeats often employs the form of dialogue, but the external dialogic form conceals a monologic discourse that states a truth on which the author has already decided. The form nevertheless serves to strengthen the poet and playwright's words by endowing them with the rhetorical strength of a conclusive truth resulting from a true dialogic pursuit.