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Selected Poems and Four Plays of William Butler Yeats by W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats, whom many consider this century's greatest poet, began as a bard of the Celtic Twilight, reviving legends and Rosicrucian symbols. By the early 1900s, however, he was moving away from plush romanticism, his verse morphing from the incantatory rhythms of "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree" into lyrics "as cold and passionate as the dawn." At every stage, however, Yeats plays a multiplicity of poetic roles. There is the romantic lover of "When You Are Old" and "A Poet to His Beloved" ("I bring you with reverent Hands / The books of my numberless dreams..."). And there are the far more bitter celebrations of Maud Gonne, who never accepted his love and engaged in too much politicking for his taste: "Why should I blame her that she filled my days / With misery, or that she would of late / Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways, / Or hurled the little streets upon the great, / Had they but courage equal to desire?" There is also the poet of conscience--and confrontation. His 1931 "Remorse for Intemperate Speech" ends: "Out of Ireland have we come. / Great hatred, little room, / Maimed us at the start. / I carried from my mother's womb / A fanatic heart."
Yeats was to explore several more sides of himself, and of Ireland, before his Last Poems of 1938-39. Many are difficult, some snobbish, others occult and spiritualist. As Brendan Kennelly writes, Yeats "produces both poppycock and sublimity in verse, sometimes closely together." On the other hand, many prophetic masterworks are poppycock-free--for example, "The Second Coming" ("Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...") and such inquiries into inspiration as "Among School Children" ("O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?"). And at his best, Yeats extends the meaning of love poetry beyond the obviously romantic: love becomes a revolutionary emotion, attaching the poet to friends, history, and the passionate life of the mind.
Unknown Binding
First published September 9, 1996
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About the author
W.B. Yeats
2,047 books2,562 followersWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." He was the first Irishman so honored. Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929).
Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo. He studied poetry in his youth, and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and those slow paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as to the Pre-Raphaelite poets. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
--from Wikipedia
Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo. He studied poetry in his youth, and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and those slow paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as to the Pre-Raphaelite poets. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
--from Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
October 29, 2018
Poetry would sound so much better in an (probably drunken) Irish lilt.
My first major exposure to Yeats was wonderful. But by the same token, limited. Reading the notes in the back of this collection of poems and plays (I skipped the plays, they didn't appeal), makes me realize that my affinity for poetry is more primal and base than the "professional" critic. I prefer poems and lines that punch me in the gut. And many times Yeats does this to full effect. I'm less concerned with the "analysis" of poetry than with its impact.
With that comes a full confession....I DESPISE Instagram poets (J iron Word, Atticus, et al.) You know what I mean. Uniformly male. Uniformly "empowering" to women. And utterly banal. There are a thousand "I am the storm" poems and poets floating out there for women to double-tap but they are just so very specious and self-affirming to be utterly worthless. Give me poetry that makes me REGRET. That makes me SIGH. That makes me YEARN, then we're talking. Don't blow smoke up my ass and call it inspiration.
Yeats does this very well. Especially in his earlier poems. Maybe that's a function of youth (though I personally think the most impactful poems are those produced when the poet has moved past that phase). But nevertheless, Yeats writes of passion, regret, and unrequited love like no other. It's wonderful.
My critiques are exclusively Anglocentric. I'm too damn 'MURICAN to feel much for his poems focused on Irish myth/folklore or Irish independence. They're perfectly fine to read, but they left me cold because I was unable to relate. That's mostly a failing of mine, I recognize.
Overall, a wonderful collection.
My first major exposure to Yeats was wonderful. But by the same token, limited. Reading the notes in the back of this collection of poems and plays (I skipped the plays, they didn't appeal), makes me realize that my affinity for poetry is more primal and base than the "professional" critic. I prefer poems and lines that punch me in the gut. And many times Yeats does this to full effect. I'm less concerned with the "analysis" of poetry than with its impact.
With that comes a full confession....I DESPISE Instagram poets (J iron Word, Atticus, et al.) You know what I mean. Uniformly male. Uniformly "empowering" to women. And utterly banal. There are a thousand "I am the storm" poems and poets floating out there for women to double-tap but they are just so very specious and self-affirming to be utterly worthless. Give me poetry that makes me REGRET. That makes me SIGH. That makes me YEARN, then we're talking. Don't blow smoke up my ass and call it inspiration.
Yeats does this very well. Especially in his earlier poems. Maybe that's a function of youth (though I personally think the most impactful poems are those produced when the poet has moved past that phase). But nevertheless, Yeats writes of passion, regret, and unrequited love like no other. It's wonderful.
My critiques are exclusively Anglocentric. I'm too damn 'MURICAN to feel much for his poems focused on Irish myth/folklore or Irish independence. They're perfectly fine to read, but they left me cold because I was unable to relate. That's mostly a failing of mine, I recognize.
Overall, a wonderful collection.
May 8, 2015
Oh Yeats, Oh Yeats,
Your words poured into my head
As water through a sieve;
You bade Swift undead,
Mourned Ireland's plight,
And waited the soul's reprieve.
But neither verse nor play
Could hold my weary eye.
So get thee behind me,
Upon the shelf I send you back;
Get thee behind me,
There are other books to crack.
Your words poured into my head
As water through a sieve;
You bade Swift undead,
Mourned Ireland's plight,
And waited the soul's reprieve.
But neither verse nor play
Could hold my weary eye.
So get thee behind me,
Upon the shelf I send you back;
Get thee behind me,
There are other books to crack.
January 4, 2022
For the past several years I've had various books of poetry sitting by my chair that I usually read a poem or two from late in the evening. It's a habit I've gotten into that seems to ease any tensions from the day. I've just recently been adding them to my Goodreads list as I complete them. I think the reason I hadn't up to now is that I really don't know what to say, just that I like them or I don't. I just don't have the intellect to properly analyze them. Anyway, this is one I completed last night. It's a reread that I first read, probably, twenty years ago. My favorite poem in the book is "The Song of the Old Mother" written in 1894 about a mothers work. Other poems that stood out to me "A Man Young and Old" and "All Things Can Tempt Me" but there are many others that I could list. Yeats poetry definitely has a feel for the period they were written in but are still marvelous.
August 3, 2021
There’s no doubt about it: Yeats was a great poet, who wrote great poetry. I really enjoyed reading his poetry like this, it gave me a better feel for his life’s work as a whole.
There were quite a few poems in here that I really liked and will be going back to, particularly some of his romantic poems. It helped that I already know a bit about his lover, Maude Gonne. Overall, his diction, and the flow of his poetry, can be very enchanting and beautiful.
There were quite a few poems in here that I really liked and will be going back to, particularly some of his romantic poems. It helped that I already know a bit about his lover, Maude Gonne. Overall, his diction, and the flow of his poetry, can be very enchanting and beautiful.
December 15, 2014
I have always been more acquainted with unorthodox and “avant-garde” literature. Lately I have been going back and reading some of the more traditional classics. I must say, at first I wanted to pull my eyes out while reading Yeats. He definitely has an unhealthy obsession with swift and although Keats, who as a poet is good, I feel he draws too much in his early writings from the deficient pathos I find in his works. Therefore as a self proclaimed “neo-romantic” I struggled through his early writings.
Nevertheless his later works were superb! The hyperbolic romantic idealization wanes towards what the editor rightly describes as his writing of the soul through the body. In this vein I feel he redeems his prior convictions and breaks free from stylistic constraints as tactile emotions comingle with his more spiritual convictions. One must concede to him though an unrelenting optimism through the times of strife, however disillusioned I may feel it to be, as he continued his career.
Nevertheless his later works were superb! The hyperbolic romantic idealization wanes towards what the editor rightly describes as his writing of the soul through the body. In this vein I feel he redeems his prior convictions and breaks free from stylistic constraints as tactile emotions comingle with his more spiritual convictions. One must concede to him though an unrelenting optimism through the times of strife, however disillusioned I may feel it to be, as he continued his career.
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August 16, 2011There are good annotated remarks, and the excellent service resources to continue to reading Years.
August 16, 2025
This contains poems from throughout Yeats' career in sections by publication. Each of the four plays was inserted in a different place among them matching the chronological order.
Suffice it to say I would have loved these poems when I was 12-19 and the plays from about 13-20 in my poetry and theatre saturated years. I'm no longer keen on fairies, druids, spiritualism, Plato (after reading the complete works of Plato once I'm off him for life other than two of his writings, The Apology and The Death of Socrates) and his poems in general just weren't for me.
There were a few poems I liked sprinkled in the lot; there is no doubt Yeats was a master at writing poetry, but if I don't care for the content, it hardly matters how brilliant the poet is. On the other hand, I can love the content but not like poetry that's poorly crafted. Yes, I'm difficult to please in this area.
I was less impressed with his play writing.
But at least now I can say I've read Yeats!
Suffice it to say I would have loved these poems when I was 12-19 and the plays from about 13-20 in my poetry and theatre saturated years. I'm no longer keen on fairies, druids, spiritualism, Plato (after reading the complete works of Plato once I'm off him for life other than two of his writings, The Apology and The Death of Socrates) and his poems in general just weren't for me.
There were a few poems I liked sprinkled in the lot; there is no doubt Yeats was a master at writing poetry, but if I don't care for the content, it hardly matters how brilliant the poet is. On the other hand, I can love the content but not like poetry that's poorly crafted. Yes, I'm difficult to please in this area.
I was less impressed with his play writing.
But at least now I can say I've read Yeats!
November 1, 2019
Yeats’ poetry is elegant, delicate. I have not been properly educated on poetry in any form, sub Paradise Lost and some meagre attempts at Shakespeare. This semester I finally was introduced to Yeats, Eliot, and Shaw (mostly plays, though Eliot argued that drama was a form of poetic expression) and I am in love, to put it simply. The dissonant struggle between life and art that Yeats tackles in his poetry throughout his life makes the collection one brimming with universality, convenience, yet packed with allusions and analytical possibility. Some of my favorite works are those that take time, effort, and outside sources to fully understand. That is what one gets with Yeats, as well as much of the best poets, authors, etc.
October 13, 2025
For around six or seven months, I’ve been writing poetry, whether that be my first serious works in June and July or the mountain of love poetry my little hands guided by a big heart (aww, aren’t I such a sweet chap?) made in August and September. Yet, I’ve never read a poetry book (😱), so beginning with Yeats, someone a friend of mine introduced me to in that now-nostalgic June, was probably a “too-big-for-my-britches” thing to do. Don’t get my wrong, he is a truly amazing poet with exposing plays like “Purgatory,” nationalistic lamentations like “The Death of Cuchulain,” or simple love songs like “The Lady’s First Song” inspiring me to give a new life to my ideas and religion, but his work is EXTREMELY complex and, for me just getting into reading poetry, hard to follow at times.
September 14, 2024
Turns out Yeats wrote poems that aren’t The Second Coming! Sadly, they are not as good :(
February 15, 2025
NOT FINISHED – done for now
My ENG 347 compatriots can attest to the psychic damage that reading too much Yeats at once inflicts.
This is the nail in the coffin: I’m into poetry.
My ENG 347 compatriots can attest to the psychic damage that reading too much Yeats at once inflicts.
This is the nail in the coffin: I’m into poetry.
August 20, 2019
A nice collection from the last great poet in my mind. Although, I will say, I am immune to the charms of his gaelic/irish mythology inspired poetry.
Read
February 23, 2021*read for british poetry class*
Want to read
February 6, 2013“Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry.”
-Yeats
http://www.online-literature.com/yeat...
O Do Not Love Too Long
SWEETHEART, do not love too long:
I loved long and long,
And grew to be out of fashion
Like an old song.
All through the years of our youth
Neither could have known
Their own thought from the other's,
We were so much at one.
But O, in a minute she changed -
O do not love too long,
Or you will grow out of fashion
Like an old song.
The Lover Tells Of The Rose In His Heart
ALL things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old,
The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart,
The heavy steps of the ploughman, splashing the wintry mould,
Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.
The wrong of unshapely things is a wrong too great to be told;
I hunger to build them anew and sit on a green knoll apart,
With the earth and the sky and the water, re-made, like a casket of gold
For my dreams of your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.
-Yeats
http://www.online-literature.com/yeat...
O Do Not Love Too Long
SWEETHEART, do not love too long:
I loved long and long,
And grew to be out of fashion
Like an old song.
All through the years of our youth
Neither could have known
Their own thought from the other's,
We were so much at one.
But O, in a minute she changed -
O do not love too long,
Or you will grow out of fashion
Like an old song.
The Lover Tells Of The Rose In His Heart
ALL things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old,
The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart,
The heavy steps of the ploughman, splashing the wintry mould,
Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.
The wrong of unshapely things is a wrong too great to be told;
I hunger to build them anew and sit on a green knoll apart,
With the earth and the sky and the water, re-made, like a casket of gold
For my dreams of your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.
Want to read
July 5, 2009I'm actually not reading this much now so maybe it shouldn't be in my currently reading, but I had a couple weeks where I had really bad insomnia and was reading this to help me get to sleep. I always had a vague idea that I probably liked Yeats but wasn't actually very familiar with his work, and then I read the intro to this book and I'm glad I did because it's basically like, "Yeats makes gazillions of references and allusions to super obscure things that you aren't gonna know, and neither do most people, so you should just sort of read his work and enjoy the sound and feeling of it without getting too hung up on understanding what the hell he's saying, exactly." Or at least, that's how I interpreted the intro, & have been reading his poems accordingly, and so far so good. In any case, his poems have been pleasant enough that they've successfully enabled me to get to sleep at night.
November 9, 2012
This elegant collection of the poet's work takes us from his early, idealistic times, to his final days and mortally aware literature. Yeats's poetry is hyper-representative of Ireland, oftentimes exhibiting anthropomorphic figures of the country in his tale-like sing-song rhyming structures and poetic plots. Interspersed throughout, though, are his heavy Irish revolutionary thoughts, his lover's laments (damn you, Maude Gonne), and his pensive final summation of life and art.
There are some truly deep and beautiful poems in this collection, enough to make you read again and again. The four plays, included throughout, likewise mirror Yeats's fascination with Irish politics, literature and lore, and love.
Perhaps Ireland's greatest poet (and THAT is a distinction), a collection of Yeats should be on every shelf.
There are some truly deep and beautiful poems in this collection, enough to make you read again and again. The four plays, included throughout, likewise mirror Yeats's fascination with Irish politics, literature and lore, and love.
Perhaps Ireland's greatest poet (and THAT is a distinction), a collection of Yeats should be on every shelf.
May 20, 2021
It's been close to twenty years since I picked up Yeats. I was reminded of the tremendous beauty of his work when a few years ago, I came across the final verse of "The Second Coming" at a photo exhibit at the Met. I found the same poem a few weeks ago and decided to purchase this book. I breezed through it and it brought me back to my college days studying his likes and that of Ezra Pound, e.e. cummings, and Edna St Vincent Millay. Poetry as they wrote it is a lost art, perhaps even a lost language. In such hardened and dark times as we now face, it was great to venture back into a landscape of such ethereal beauty. Though his obsession with death lingers in all verse here, there is a natural ease to the flow of his words and rarely is one ever out of place.
July 18, 2012
I couldn't find the exact e-book called just "Poems" from "Gutenberg" project with some plays and other poetry, which I am currently reading, but this one seems to be the closest to it with its content and volume.
So, I just read "The Countess Cathleen" and several poems about Fergus and The Druid and Cuchulain and his son ("The Death of Cuchulain"), and I have to say this was one of the most absorbing reads I have ever had in my life. I would never expect that I will enjoy reading a play so much! Hopefully, all Yeats lovers will pardon my expression: I can't help but saying they were f*ckin' awesome!! :D
So, I just read "The Countess Cathleen" and several poems about Fergus and The Druid and Cuchulain and his son ("The Death of Cuchulain"), and I have to say this was one of the most absorbing reads I have ever had in my life. I would never expect that I will enjoy reading a play so much! Hopefully, all Yeats lovers will pardon my expression: I can't help but saying they were f*ckin' awesome!! :D
June 3, 2011
I read this collection too fast, a couple poems a night just before going to sleep, and that's not the way to read Yeats. You need resources nearby for looking up his references (unless you have a really strong background in classical literature, Irish mythology, and the past century and a half or so of the history of Ireland) to fully appreciate many of the poems in this collection.
Nevertheless, much of what you can understand and some of what you can't, you are stirred by and love.
Nevertheless, much of what you can understand and some of what you can't, you are stirred by and love.
January 14, 2010
WBY is probably my favorite poet (it's close w/ Keats and Eliot). I think this collection gives a good intro to his works. My personal favorites are the Byzantium poems, which contemplate the role of the artist v/v death (cf. Shakespeare's sonnets).
September 5, 2012
Some quite excellent poetry, some not so much. Reminds me some of T S Eliot. Many excellent one-or-two-liners in the middle of mediocre work. Lots of literary allusions, philosophical thoughts, historical mentions and theological stuff.
December 5, 2016
This collection was my introduction to Yeats, the Irish author of gorgeous and powerful verse that has deeply moved me for two decades. I'm forever grateful my girlfriend (now my wife) bought it for me.
February 6, 2007
One poem: Adam's Curse.
April 1, 2007
he's the man
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April 19, 2007Many was the dreamy sigh I spent over this collection of poems and plays. Oh, darling William, keeper of my collegiate heart!
October 18, 2007
i went through a irish literature phase in college. i read as much as possible however i feel like i have retained little from it.
May 30, 2008
The Wilde Swans at Coole... my favorite
June 21, 2008
No matter who you are or what your interests, I can find at least one poem here that will move you deeply.
September 11, 2009
a powerful glimpse into what was then the future of literature, with an added history lesson and analysis of the [still ongoing:] Irish-English political struggle.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews