The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats, Volume 1: The Poems

by Richard J. Finneran (Editor), W.B. Yeats

Revised and corrected, this edition includes Yeats's own notes on his poetry, complemented by explanatory notes from esteemed Yeats scholar Richard J. Finneran. The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats is the most comprehensive edition of one of the world's most beloved poets available in paperback.

Genres: Poetry, Ireland, Classics, Irish Literature, Collections, 20th Century, 19th Century

784 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

Richard J. Finneran was general editor, with George Mills Harper, of The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats for many years; series editor of The Poems in the Cornell Yeats; and editor of Yeats: An Annual of Critical and Textual Studies, among other works. He held the Hodges Chair of Excellence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; was a past president of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association; and served as executive director of the Society for Textual Scholarship.

Reviews

[Everyone Poops · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing I can think to say about WB Yeats is that, despite the controversy that has enshrouded him for almost a century, he is not "one of those poets you either love or hate."

If I were to read this collection from cover to cover (exhaustive annotations included. I won't ever do this, by the way), it's likely that I would come out really ambivalent. In fact, you don't even need to read the fucking book. Just take a really good Anglo-Irish Lit. class and the lectures on Yeats's life can't avoid the fact that he turned into a crotchety old man.

Much like Wordsworth, Yeats turned into a real bastard. The youth and occasional naiveté he embraced in his early work (and probably his most immediately mellifluous) was an object of so much contempt in his later life. It was for a very real reason. His "mistake" (in the spirit of my irresolute opinion of the man, I only call it a mistake when I'm in a bad mood) was that the things that made him write were the things of political life. If you know anything about Ireland in the early 20th Century, you know it was a political and militaristic disaster, an everyday torrent of explosions and gunfire and homemade bombs and shit.

Over the years, Yeats began to feel almost responsible for the political strife that continued to plague his beloved country. Having one of the most remarkable bodies of work in the English language and, yes, probably inspiring a lot of people to make irresponsible choices in the defense of their Ireland disenchanted him. The man speaking in his poems suffers, but his poems don't.

It's just a matter of taste, but one that doesn't have to be acquired through such a comprehensive collection. If you're not an Anglo-Irish nut like I am, I suggest you opt for the Collected Poems edited by Richard Finneran.

[Vesna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection edited by Finneran contains not only all of Yates' poems, including the long narrative ones, but also an appendix with lyrics from his plays, Yeats' own notes to his collections and Finneran's explanatory notes which form the bulk of the book. For Yeats’ poems, it’s essential to know their context as they embed a great many historical, political, mythological, mystical, and autobiographical allusions. This makes annotations indispensable and, while voluminous, Finneran’s notes are not even across poems nor detailed enough. Much finer notes can be found in the comprehensive volume by Jeffares, A Commentary on the Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats which I would recommend in lieu of Finneran's explanatory notes (even though Jeffares uses slightly different numerical references to individual poems than those listed in Finnaren, they are more or less listed in the same order and easily recognizable by their titles). Otherwise, the completeness in presenting Yeats' entire poetic oeuvre with careful arrangements of all of his lyric and narrative poems makes Finneran's revised second edition definitive.

[Randy Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

He is one of those monumental poets. I felt it best I drink up all of him and let his lines flow over me so maybe a sliver of his greatness would come out of me in my poetry.

I can’t say after reading all these hundreds of poems I am a fan. I get the pleasure of reading him but not a single poem sticks with me and that is surprising. I read them all out loud and that is definitely the best way to enjoy his work. I must say that it mostly felt like an ordeal that I am happy to be done with.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Left me gammy and banjaxed.

[Gayle Byrne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was difficult for me. I feel like you had to be a student of Irish history and folklore to understand most of these poems. I enjoyed reading familiar ones, but honestly struggled through most of it.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last poet with a full range of vocabulary and emotion. These poems challenge and enthrall.

[Max Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeats is a really interest poet to explore, primarily because his distinction (in retrospect, not at the time) from other poets is largely in subject matter rather than style. Overall, he is a typical structural modernist and most of his poems didn't really feel unique in their aesthetic or even in their "poetic flare". This was the biggest drag for me, not that Yeats isn't an exceptional poet, but just that after reading a lot of classic and contemporary poetry, there isn't much about Yeats specifically that sets him apart.

However, his subjects are compelling. The most famous Irish poet, Yeats talks extensively about Irish folklore and mythology, implements classic tales and heroes without shying away from contemporary topics. Yeats was a clearly pre-confessional poet. As much as I love confessional poetry, it's sort of a breath of fresh air to hear a certain objectivity and disconnect from him, an air of storytelling.

All in all, a good collection of good poetry. Not my favorite, but it all comes down to personal preference.

[Ian Minielly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel bad only giving Yeats poems two stars. I think this is probably more of an indictment on me than it is on Yeats. I just could not get into Yeats. I read 100 pages and did not like a single poem. I just could not get it. I suspect this is more of a problem on my end. So I would not dissuade someone else from reading Yeats, but I would tell them I did not get him and did not care for it. Perhaps it got better after 100 pages of poems, but at my age I just do not want to waste more time than that on a book I am not enjoying.

[Magpie6493 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I havemt read a lot of Yeats poetry before and I really enjoyed how this collection was assembled and if you're looking at reading more of his poetry I would recommend this volume.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

GORGEOUS WTF

[Jen Lacroix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Traditional with elements of beauty.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reading this book in sections and writing reviews as I complete them. Overall, this edition is a wonderful collection of Yeats' poetry, with helpful notes and easy to read layout. This book highlights Yeats' mastery of the poetic form. He is truly a craftsman, weaving form and rhyme into his work without the metronomic drone or bludgeoning rhymes of lesser poets. For sheer beauty of language and rhythm, Yeats is difficult to surpass.

If not for Yeats' spiritualistic interests, I would have rated the book more highly. I simply don’t find his mystical, soul-searching subjects very interesting.

Crossways *** -- In this earliest set of Yeat’s poems (circa. 1889), the young poet shows some amazing talent. Some poems show a lack of experience or searching for a style, but several are very good particularly The Song of the Happy Shepherd. The beautiful music of Yeats’ poetry is heard. (05/16)

The Tower**** -- The Tower contains some of Yeats best known poems including Sailing to Byzantium, The Tower, Meditations in the Time of Civil War and Among School Children. Unsurprisingly, these poems shine far brighter than the others. (01/11)

The Winding Stair and Other Poems**** -- Although this book lacks the famous poems in The Tower, it is a worthy sequel, continuing many of the same symbols (sword, tower, etc.) The poems work together as one long thematic unity. “Words for Music Perhaps” is an interesting collection. Though not really intended to be put to music, it contains several suites/poem-sequences with a simple and direct elegance of songs. (10/11)

Parnell’s Funeral and Other Poems ** – This short collection of poems are all rather obscure – in meaning and in impact. They are especially loaded with Yeats’ unique mythology. If one is into those things, this is an interesting collection. If not, it is a baffling mess. Otherwise there also are some updated songs from his plays. Meru is the best, most accessible poem in the set. (05/16)

Narrative and Dramatic***: These poems are a bit uneven, but the first book of The Wandering of Oisin is one of the best things I’ve ever read. The poem, in rhymed accentual verse, is beautiful and moving. The story is dark and mysterious, full of surprises in plot and language. (01/11)

[Liam Guilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful edition, The book as a physical object alone deserves five stars. So much has been written about Yeats that it's often hard to get past the critical babble to the actual poems. What this does beautifully is to make all the poems available.

When I was at school Yeats was simply "The Greatest Poet of the Twentieth century". The swing against him, as Ideological criticism became the dominant mode, convicted his character of a wide variety of sins:aristocratic, snobbish, elitist, right wing, spirit mumbler-dabbler in fascism.

As Seamus Heaney said in 'Stepping Stones": 'Of course he and his work will be assailed, but they are ready for it. If ever there was an oeuvre that can take a hammering, that's even daring you have a go at it, it's Yeats'...The rereadings and reactions haven't knocked him askew, they've just helped us to know ourselves and him better'.

This collected invites the reader to begin at the beginning, with a dreamy, slightly unreal Yeats with his idealised "Lover" and follow him through his life, through the politics and the political and artistic career, through the obsessions with Maud G, his marriage, to arrive at that old man who could write that famous last poem it's almost impossible to imagine his younger self accepting.

As you do so you can watch the style develop, see the great poems in their settings, and unlike a selected, get an idea of Yeats' surprising range.

A substantial section of notes is provided but one of the characteristics of Yeats' poems is that as Bunting said, unlike Eliot or Pound, he didn't expect his readers to live in books, so the poems are almost always self explanatory

[Bap · Rating 5 out of 5]

W.B Yeats is incredible. I have so many favorite poems. Easter 1916. " Now and in time to be,/Wherever green is worn,/Are changed utterly:/A terrible beauty is born." Or An Airman Forsees his Death. "I know that I shall meet my fate/Somewhere among the clouds above;/Those that I fight I do not hate,/Those that I guard I do not love;/ My country is Kiltartan Cross,/My countrymen Klitartan's poor,/No likely end could bring them loss/Or leave them happier than before"

Or the chilling lines of The Second coming. " Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,/The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned;/The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity./Surely some revelation is at hand;/Surely the second coming is at hand./...And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,/Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[Rasp Thorne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone interested in the human condition needs to read this. You witnes the progresion o f a sensitve, ideal, romantic youg man become gradually stripped of all he held on his pedestal and have to continually re-invent himself to stay afloat. It's all in here. The hope and degradatoin of love and lovers, the progression and regressions of a poverty struck Ireland with wars and terrorism, mysticism and the disappointment it brings, blood, guts and even some t&a. So what he flirted with facism and eugenics in his final years? For his almost 6 decades of service and labor to poetry, philosophy and beauty I think we can allow the old aristocrat some faults. I suggest starteing with "The Wind in the Reeds" and reading it straight through. Yeats is a genius in the true sense, he had to make himself one through labor, patience and grace.

[Harvey · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume I: The Poems: Revised Second Edition
Kindle
ASIN : B003P9XHRQ
Publisher : Scribner; 2nd Revised edition (June 4, 2010)
Publication date : June 4, 2010

The review so far. The very first line in the very first poem collection 'Crossways' has a typo. You would think with editing you could at least get past the first line without a typo, especially in a collected works edition such as this. From the dedication of 'Crossways' -

‘The stars are threshed, and the soub are threshed from their husks.’ WILLIAM BLAKE

Yeats, William Butler. The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume I: The Poems: Revised Second Edition (p. 4). Scribner. Kindle Edition.

[dragynlady · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a gift to me from a customer that used to come into the deli I worked at. We had many nice conversations as he came in most every day. He was older and was had extremely bad eye site. He would sit and eat and read with his books held up against his nose. I think of him from time to time and think how hard it would be to lose the ability to read because of blindness. He gave this book to me as a going away gift when I left for college. That was 22 years ago. I still have not read all the poems but this is really more of a book to savor.

[Clarence Cromwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came away from Yeats complete works with very few, lines of his poetry stuck in my head. I've always held "The Second Coming" in high regard, and I though there would be more like it, but not really.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loves me some Yeats. Things fall apart, the centre does not hold.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took a Yeats class which helped me to interpret these poems and plays and found it to be very worthwhile.

[Eric Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll keep you posted

UPDATE....This dude's work is both wistfull and whimsical and as I read his poems( that sometimes go on far too long)in the back of my mind I can hear a faint Irish broug

[Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeats was THE poet of his generation. Read this to know why. His poems are beautiful, timeless and important.

[Timothy Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a poetry person, but I love Yeats.

[Daryn Guarino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeats is my favorite poet of all time and this book collects them all. A truly enjoyable read for fans of poetry and/or Yeats!

[Lise · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can't say poetry without saying Yeats.

[Declan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Came for the poetry, stayed for the appendices. Even includes some sheet music to accompany some of the poems!