On the Boiler

by W.B. Yeats

reprinted in 1971, unbound, originally published by Cuala Press in 1938. Pages remain uncut.

47 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1938

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

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Late Yeatsian prose, and better than that dreck, A Vision. Poundian, meaning Fenollosan (fayn-o-yo-s'n), meaning Chinese in its method, that is to say ideogrammic. Imagine Guide to Kulchur , but rather than economic, eugenic. Something of a filthy book in that sense, but finely crafted and finely discriminating (pun intended) in its selection.

Vide. http://nla.gov.au/nla.gen-vn5717848

[Mothpit]

I don't feel comfortable rating it, so I will skip that part.
Yeats is undoubtably a brilliant writer, which is why his belief in eugenics is all the more painful and distressing. The first third was clearer on the topic, so it was worse to read, the middle was okay-ish, but it definitely was aided by my tired inattention and Purgatory... God dammit Yeats. That just plunges straight back into ideas of degeneration. Despicable.