What metaphors are used in Autobiographies by William Butler Yeats?

Much of the narrative is both literal and metaphorical for Irish nationalism. Yeats was preoccupied with the theme of Irish nationalism throughout his life, even though he was a member of an Anglo-Irish family—a group that generally identified more strongly with England than Ireland in the 1800s. From the time he was a small child, the traditional Irish stories of farmers and villagers and odd relatives fascinated him.