The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats

The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats #2

by W.B. Yeats

This comprehensive eBook presents the complete works or all the significant works - the Œuvre - of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook - easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate:
• Poems of W. B. Yeats
• Ideas of Good and Evil by
• The Celtic Twilight
• The Wind Among the Reeds
• The Wild Swans at Coole
• Gods and Fighting MenLady Gregory
• The Trembling of the Veil
• The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays
• Responsibilities
• The Secret Rose
• Per Amica Silentia Lunae
• The Green Helmet and Other Poems
• The King's Threshold; and On Baile's Strand
• The Countess Cathleen
• Rosa Alchemica
• Reveries over Childhood and Youth
• In The Seven Woods
• The Hour Glass
• Seven Poems and a Fragment
• Two plays for dancers
• The Unicorn from the Stars and Other Plays and Lady Gregory
• A Book of Irish Verse
• Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
• The Land of Heart's Desire
• Mosada: A dramatic poem
• The Cutting of an Agate
• Discoveries: A Volume of Essays
• The Land of Heart's Desire
• Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, Second SeriesLady Gregory
• Tables of the Law; & The Adoration of the Magi
• Stories of Red Hanrahan
• Four Years
• Synge and the Ireland of His Time
• Where There is Nothing
• THE COUNTESS CATHLEEN
• THE ROSE—
• To the Rose upon the Rood of Time
• Fergus and the Druid
• The Death of Cuchulain
• The Rose of the World
• The Rose of Peace
• The Rose of Battle
• A Faery Song
• The Lake Isle of Innisfree
• A Cradle Song
• The Pity of Love
• The Sorrow of Love
• When You are Old
• The White Birds
• A Dream of Death
• A Dream of a Blessed Spirit
• Who goes with Fergus
• The Man who Dreamed of Faeryland
• The Dedication to a Book of Stories selected from the Irish Novelists
• The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner
• etc.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Ireland, Literature, Fiction, Plays, Irish Literature

2877 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1966

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

[Patrick Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is why:

"When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars."

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it took me nearly three months to get through this bruiser but I’ve finally finished! Don’t let this exclamation give you the idea I haven’t enjoyed the journey, though; I did. A lot.

Why only 3 stars then? Well, the rating isn’t for Yeats’ work but rather this collection, which was woeful in numerous ways.

For starters, the layout is awful. Some of the poems don’t even have breaks between the lines! Secondly, if the works are presented in any kind of logical order, I certainly couldn’t detect it. Chronological order would have been so much better for a collection of this kind and would also have highlighted my third complaint, namely that huge chunks of this book are repeated. If you eliminated all the duplication of material the page count would be reduced, by my calculations, by about 25 per cent! Ludicrous.

I highly recommend Yeats’ body of work, but this book? Not so much.

My next book: Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Team-Up vol. 4

[Paola · Rating 5 out of 5]

I clearly remember I hated it in high school. Prufrock was just beyond me. baffling and frustrating and incomprehensible. I hated it with a passion.
Then I went back to it a few years and at first (re)read I fell in love with it. I guess a few years of serious study of the English Language and a LOT of reading of English Literature DID help me.
I have not fallen out of love yet. I keep going back to it and reading a line or a verse and it is so inspiring and ...well: beautiful! Prufrock for me is just so beautiful it makes me dizzy.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again another book I’m counting as read despite not having read this book specifically. So, I’ve read like ten or so Yates pomes as were studying him along with other Irish writers in my Irish lit elective I’m taking in college, and After reading and analyzing at least ten of his short one to three pager pomes from the internet I feel it’s only fair I count one of his pome collection books as read toward my reading goal this year, since I imagine some of the poems read in class probably overlap with what’s featured in here anyway.

I would say my official review for this book is 3.5 stars, but alas we can’t give half stars on Goodreads so four stars it is since Yeats to me is above deserving three stars.

I do quite like his poetry but some poems he’s written I like less than others. Most of his work evokes Irish nationalistic themes, themes of solitude, chaos and political strife during the Irish civil war period and birds and nature imagery, also magic and Irish myths.

I quite like how he writes poetry and he’s clearly a very skilled poet. Most interesting in his works and life is how into Irish myths and magic he was. If you read up on the man you’ll find he studied magic and was almost what one could consider pagan or Wicca but if paganism and Christianity fused together that would be Yeats beliefs, since he believed in the god of Christianity naturally as an Irishman but he thought of god through a spiritual and mystic magical lens typical in that of paganism beliefs minus the multiple gods aspect, interestingly enough. You can see that in a lot of poems when he makes reference to some magical divined higher power evocative of Jesus or god but in a more mythical sense. Or when he makes reference to many Irish folktales.

The only reason I lower his rating to 3.5 stars is because Well I think he’s a good poet I don’t agree with some of the political beliefs he puts into his poetry such as that extremism Is bad, or being too strong with your beliefs, Is bad.

Also I find if you study his poetry and read enough of it you can notice he contradicts himself or almost seems to have a change of views slightly because he went through many different phases and beliefs even being praised for how his work continues to evolve from flowery prose poetry to more blunt and to the point poetry as he’s praised for being able to change his style and continue to experiment both with viewpoints and styles throughout his writing which is said to be helpful for writers to avoid becoming stale. Yet to me it also means that if you like one style of voice Yeats uses it may only be evocative in a couple of his poems then the next couple may feel tonally different in some ways that could make them weaker, or stronger depending on which style of his you like best. I think this is also why many of the poetry collections from what I’ve gathered tend to organize his poetry into sections or phases of his life as each phase really is him writing in a different style or with shifting views as he continued to explore different ideas politically and styles writing wise.

[Darren Cullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It contains my favourite poem, "An Irish Airman Foresees his Death," which was my introduction to poetry. Yeats verges on the prophetic at times while fully embracing the mythic and mystical. A must-read for anybody wanting to understand Irish Culture and the general atmosphere of the Gaelic Revival. I say that as an Irishman.

[Jari Padoan]

Probablement le plus grande voix en langue anglaise du XX siècle...

[laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love him omg i love him so much

[Aeterna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pensive and emotive as always.

[jigyasa ⋆₊˚✮ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"o may the moon and sunlight seem 
one inextricable beam, 
for if i triumph i must make men mad."

[Rosa Ramôa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Quando fores velha, grisalha, vencida pelo sono,
Dormitando junto à lareira, toma este livro,
Lê-o devagar, e sonha com o doce olhar
Que outrora tiveram teus olhos, e com as suas sombras profundas;
Muitos amaram os momentos de teu alegre encanto,
Muitos amaram essa beleza com falso ou sincero amor,
Mas apenas um homem amou tua alma peregrina,
E amou as mágoas do teu rosto que mudava;
Inclinada sobre o ferro incandescente,
Murmura, com alguma tristeza, como o Amor te abandonou
E em largos passos galgou as montanhas
Escondendo o rosto numa imensidão de estrelas".