Deirdre

by W.B. Yeats

Deirdre is a play written by the renowned Irish poet and playwright, William Butler Yeats. The play is based on an ancient Irish myth about a woman named Deirdre who is said to have been the most beautiful woman in Ireland. The story tells of how Deirdre was forced to marry a king named Conchobar, but she fell in love with a warrior named Naoise. Deirdre and Naoise fled to Scotland to avoid Conchobar's wrath, but they were eventually betrayed and killed. Yeats' play explores themes of love, betrayal, and fate. The characters are complex and well-developed, with Deirdre being portrayed as a tragic heroine who is torn between her love for Naoise and her duty to her people. The play is written in verse, with Yeats' signature lyrical style and use of symbolism. Deirdre was first performed in 1907 and is considered one of Yeats' most significant works. The play has been adapted numerous times for stage and screen, and it continues to be a popular and influential piece of Irish literature.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Genres: Plays, Mythology, Drama, Poetry, Irish Literature

Paperback

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

William 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

Reviews

[عدنان العبار · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another interesting play of Yeats about a terrible king who takes one of the fine women of his city as his wife, killing her husband, because he thinks her fit only for him, ruining himself in the process. This will also be reread for proper review.

[Eline Martens · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ☆
Really beautiful prose. I read Yeats' essay on the Celtic element in literature which was so focused on the mystical and magical that I had expected this adaptation of The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu to be more focussed on Deirdre's curse, but it's specifically focussed on the undying love of Deirdre and Naisi. I would've liked the mystical element, but I like that in this play you see more of the interaction between Naisi and Deirdre which you do not get in the original. Although it's debatable whether Naisi was really that in love (if at all) with Deirdre in the original imo.

Some quotes which I adored:
Deirdre to Naisi while she's sitting at his knees
"Do you remember that first night in the woods
We lay all night on leaves, and looking up,
When the first grey of the dawn awoke the birds,
Saw leaves above us. You thought that I still slept,
And bending down to kiss me on the eyes,
Found they were open. Bend and kiss me now,
For it may be the last before our death
And when that's over, we'll be different;
Imperishable things, a cloud or a fire.
And I know nothing but this body, nothing
But that old vehement, bewildering kiss."

Musician
"And though you have suffered all for mere love's sake
You'd live your lives again"
Deirdre
"Even this last hour."

Also some lines I thought were funny:
Deirdre (while playing a game of chess with Naisi, waiting for Conchubar who will probably kill them)
"I cannot go on playing like that woman
That had but the cold blood of the sea in her veins."
Naisi
"It is your move. Take up your man again."
Lmaooo, just completely ignoring Deirdre crashing out.

[The men drag in Naisi entangled in a net.]
Naisi
"I have been taken like a bird or a fish."
Naisi is just chill like that I guess.

[Hana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must have read this like 4 times by now

[J.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fan of Yeats but had never read anything other than his poetry. This work also fits with research I'm conducting for my novel based on Druids and Irish legends. It is always difficult to read a play when it is intended to be seen and heard. I did find his take on the Deirdre legend interesting. The stage directions age the main characters more than I anticipated, and the dual tragedies occurs offstage, so it is the language and the emotion that carries the work. I shall re-visit this play as my own writing progresses, but that's no problem. It is an easy read time-wise.

[Rand Mustafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's amazing and revolutionary at the same time. I liked how Yeats adapted it and changed the ending of the original myth. Women portrayed in Deirdre can do a lot..

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

she’s soooo badass