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W.B. Yeats
Ireland's most influential poet, Yeats's poems express both powerful personal feelings and something of the whole human dilemma of the 20th century.
102 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1895
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About the author
W.B. Yeats
2,043 books2,563 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 93 reviews
March 26, 2024
L'itinerario poetico di Yeats è esemplare e imprescindibile per comprendere le sorti della poesia europea dalla seconda metà dell'ottocento alla prima metà del novecento.
Nella fase poetica giovanile, i più importanti stimoli letterari contemporanei si addensano ad uno spiccato e possente anelito spirituale, forse il vero leitmotiv dell'intera produzione poetica: nasce così una prima poesia espressamente simbolista, immersa in un orizzonte mitico e ricca di musicalità e suggestioni impressionistiche, che ne caratterizzano tuttavia un'eccessiva vaghezza semantica. Singolare è il primo eclettismo religioso, spesso facente capo più alla tradizione mistica hindi che a quella propria. Infatti, secondo me nei versi giovanili il tentativo di creare una poesia che possa essere radicalmente irlandese e patriottica è pienamente fallimentare: se non qualche toponimo e qualche personaggio mitologico (spesso di finzione), l'Irlanda è assolutamente evanescente.
Nel corso del tempo il verso yeatsiano si asciuga della primeva abbondanza e si fa più classicheggiante, la parola e il dettato si arricchiscono di un'aurea autenticamente magica e le immagini si fanno più nitide, semplici, ma di significato ben più profondo: in particolare dal 1907, anno di pubblicazione di A Vision, opera in prosa in cui si condensa l'orizzonte mistico-spirituale del poeta, si accentua e diventa imprescindibile un tema già presente nei versi giovanili, ossia il tema del doppio, follemente dipinto nella duplice immagine di Sfinge e Buddha, luna e sole, spirito e carne: ogni essere umano è costretto a sottostare alla duplice influenza, che crea, nella casualità con cui le influenze si combinano, le differenze di carattere e di inclinazioni dell'essere umano e non solo, ma anche nel carattere delle nazioni e del mondo. Con questa fase matura della poesia yeatsiana, anche i versi patriottici si fanno meno forzati, più sentiti ed autentici: nella tragedia della guerra civile vissuta dal poeta (perennemente tormentato dal rimorso dell'inazione), la voce stessa si rende più aspra, più arcigna, quasi come se scissa dalla poesia più intima e spirituale, veramente indignata e toccata dai drammi vissuti dalla propria nazione.
La fase anziana della poesia del Yeats, unanimemente giudicata anche la più valida, è quella che realmente mi ha folgorato: lo spiritualismo raggiunge apici di saggezza visionaria, sparsi nei versi in veri e propri squarci improvvisi. L'approssimarsi della morte, l'amara dimensione della vecchiaia, la perdita dei cari amici e dell'immaginazione non sfociano in un canonico pessimismo, ma bensì in una maggiore foga conoscitiva, sorretta dalla certezza di aver raggiunto una maturazione interiore definitiva. La sempiterna questione della superiorità di corpo ed anima, sempre interrogata nell'opera yeatsiana, diventa nell'anzianità ricercata con ansia, e inizialmente risposta con ambiguità. Sorge poi l'intuizione finale, contenuta in Under ben Bulben, poesia finale e lascito spirituale del poeta: corpo ed anima sono complementari, e le due dimensioni, spirituale e corporale, non possono non prescindere l'una dall'altra.
Nella fase poetica giovanile, i più importanti stimoli letterari contemporanei si addensano ad uno spiccato e possente anelito spirituale, forse il vero leitmotiv dell'intera produzione poetica: nasce così una prima poesia espressamente simbolista, immersa in un orizzonte mitico e ricca di musicalità e suggestioni impressionistiche, che ne caratterizzano tuttavia un'eccessiva vaghezza semantica. Singolare è il primo eclettismo religioso, spesso facente capo più alla tradizione mistica hindi che a quella propria. Infatti, secondo me nei versi giovanili il tentativo di creare una poesia che possa essere radicalmente irlandese e patriottica è pienamente fallimentare: se non qualche toponimo e qualche personaggio mitologico (spesso di finzione), l'Irlanda è assolutamente evanescente.
Nel corso del tempo il verso yeatsiano si asciuga della primeva abbondanza e si fa più classicheggiante, la parola e il dettato si arricchiscono di un'aurea autenticamente magica e le immagini si fanno più nitide, semplici, ma di significato ben più profondo: in particolare dal 1907, anno di pubblicazione di A Vision, opera in prosa in cui si condensa l'orizzonte mistico-spirituale del poeta, si accentua e diventa imprescindibile un tema già presente nei versi giovanili, ossia il tema del doppio, follemente dipinto nella duplice immagine di Sfinge e Buddha, luna e sole, spirito e carne: ogni essere umano è costretto a sottostare alla duplice influenza, che crea, nella casualità con cui le influenze si combinano, le differenze di carattere e di inclinazioni dell'essere umano e non solo, ma anche nel carattere delle nazioni e del mondo. Con questa fase matura della poesia yeatsiana, anche i versi patriottici si fanno meno forzati, più sentiti ed autentici: nella tragedia della guerra civile vissuta dal poeta (perennemente tormentato dal rimorso dell'inazione), la voce stessa si rende più aspra, più arcigna, quasi come se scissa dalla poesia più intima e spirituale, veramente indignata e toccata dai drammi vissuti dalla propria nazione.
La fase anziana della poesia del Yeats, unanimemente giudicata anche la più valida, è quella che realmente mi ha folgorato: lo spiritualismo raggiunge apici di saggezza visionaria, sparsi nei versi in veri e propri squarci improvvisi. L'approssimarsi della morte, l'amara dimensione della vecchiaia, la perdita dei cari amici e dell'immaginazione non sfociano in un canonico pessimismo, ma bensì in una maggiore foga conoscitiva, sorretta dalla certezza di aver raggiunto una maturazione interiore definitiva. La sempiterna questione della superiorità di corpo ed anima, sempre interrogata nell'opera yeatsiana, diventa nell'anzianità ricercata con ansia, e inizialmente risposta con ambiguità. Sorge poi l'intuizione finale, contenuta in Under ben Bulben, poesia finale e lascito spirituale del poeta: corpo ed anima sono complementari, e le due dimensioni, spirituale e corporale, non possono non prescindere l'una dall'altra.
November 16, 2021
I’m in Sligo Ireland right and having picked up this lovely edition of Yeats poetry at Charlie Byrne’s in Galway read the whole thing last night. It has a pretty good introduction from William Tindall the Columbia professor.
Yeats - you know reading his poems as a poet one is immediately aware of an unfathomable and inexplicable gulf in quality. Yeats doesn’t pick the cleverest words, most of the poems rhyme, and yet they have this incredible thing to them. His poem about the island of Innisfree I’ve tried to write a poem like that but the best I’ve done is just miles away. How does he do it?
Most of his poems “come out of air” so to speak, they don’t seem particularly based on a place or experience. Some have a mystical element or reference. Their greatness is sort of elusive, it’s there but hard to pinpoint.
“Sailing to Byzantium” was the impetus for the name of a literary magazine I started in college. Also his poems are the text for one of my favorite classical music pieces, “The Curlew.” The Leda and Second Coming poems are classics but they really aren’t like the rest of his work.
I was going to visit his grave and read “Under Ben Bulben” there, but it’s further than I thought. There’s a Yeats Museum across the street here maybe they have a tour.
Yeats is of course recommended for all.
Yeats - you know reading his poems as a poet one is immediately aware of an unfathomable and inexplicable gulf in quality. Yeats doesn’t pick the cleverest words, most of the poems rhyme, and yet they have this incredible thing to them. His poem about the island of Innisfree I’ve tried to write a poem like that but the best I’ve done is just miles away. How does he do it?
Most of his poems “come out of air” so to speak, they don’t seem particularly based on a place or experience. Some have a mystical element or reference. Their greatness is sort of elusive, it’s there but hard to pinpoint.
“Sailing to Byzantium” was the impetus for the name of a literary magazine I started in college. Also his poems are the text for one of my favorite classical music pieces, “The Curlew.” The Leda and Second Coming poems are classics but they really aren’t like the rest of his work.
I was going to visit his grave and read “Under Ben Bulben” there, but it’s further than I thought. There’s a Yeats Museum across the street here maybe they have a tour.
Yeats is of course recommended for all.
June 2, 2022
4 stars - English ebook
I studied some of Yeats poems while at school and decided to revisit his works 35 years later. This book is a collection of most of his best ones and gives a good flavour of the poet’s oeuvre. Yeats was very much a romantic poet and many of the poems are lyrical odes to beautiful women. Yeats was also an Irish nationalist and there are quite a few political poems in which he sides with the Irish rebels of the early 20th Century. There are a lot of poems which are based on or allude to Irish (and Greek) mythology. I liked quite a few of the poems but didn’t like his longer rambling ones,while others were overly verbose and flowery. I preferred the poems in the first half of this book to the second. My favourite poem was The Second Coming.Other ones worth a mention are When You Are Old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree,Easter 1916 and An Irish Airman Foresees His Death.
I studied some of Yeats poems while at school and decided to revisit his works 35 years later. This book is a collection of most of his best ones and gives a good flavour of the poet’s oeuvre. Yeats was very much a romantic poet and many of the poems are lyrical odes to beautiful women. Yeats was also an Irish nationalist and there are quite a few political poems in which he sides with the Irish rebels of the early 20th Century. There are a lot of poems which are based on or allude to Irish (and Greek) mythology. I liked quite a few of the poems but didn’t like his longer rambling ones,while others were overly verbose and flowery. I preferred the poems in the first half of this book to the second. My favourite poem was The Second Coming.Other ones worth a mention are When You Are Old, The Lake Isle of Innisfree,Easter 1916 and An Irish Airman Foresees His Death.
October 3, 2018
I enjoyed some poems better than others. I listened to this in an audio format, read by T. P. McKenna. It was my first time to listen to poetry in the audiobook format, and I found it more difficult to follow than poems in print. I think a longer pause between poems would help transition from one to the other a bit better. I tend to listen to audiobooks while driving, and distractions caused by traffic which don't cause one to lose much when listening to a novel create a bigger challenge in audio format. The narrator's voice reminded me of that of a stodgy old English professor.
November 28, 2014
“Poemas” do irlandês W. B. Yeats, Prémio Nobel da Literatura em 1923, é um conjunto de poemas traduzidos por José Agostinho Baptista de excelente qualidade.
“Quando Fores Velha”
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.
“Quando Fores Velha”
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.
November 30, 2022
Maybe it’s me or my expectations but I was a bit disappointed. Some of the poems one immediately recognises as absolute masterpieces.
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, for instance, is short but extremely powerful, both in terms of imagery and sonorities.
The poem made such an impression on me in my twenties that I memorised it and can still recite it to this day, now over 25 years ago.
Upon reading the entire volume night after night over the last couple of weeks, however, I came across only few of these instant crushes and found the average Yates poem to be somewhat too conceptual and intellectualist for my taste.
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, for instance, is short but extremely powerful, both in terms of imagery and sonorities.
The poem made such an impression on me in my twenties that I memorised it and can still recite it to this day, now over 25 years ago.
Upon reading the entire volume night after night over the last couple of weeks, however, I came across only few of these instant crushes and found the average Yates poem to be somewhat too conceptual and intellectualist for my taste.
December 20, 2023
Its been nice to read some poetry again, and I've never read Yeats so I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
February 4, 2025
Beautiful book. I couldn't enjoy it as much as I would've liked to since my knowledge of Irish folklore is basically nonexistent, nevertheless, I did resonate with many of the poems and loved reading it over a few months. Confirmed that poetry is the perfect read before sleep.
April 21, 2023
Read again and again...
Of course, WBY is like that.
This beautiful audio poetry edition is available on Hoopla, checked out via Broward County Library in Florida. Check your local libraries for availability.
Of course, WBY is like that.
This beautiful audio poetry edition is available on Hoopla, checked out via Broward County Library in Florida. Check your local libraries for availability.
October 29, 2019
Such beauty!
April 30, 2021
I struggle with poetry, it’s not that I don’t enjoy the imagery, but I think my expectations are too high, I am not one easily swept away by slant rhyme. That being said Yeats had some lines which caught me, for reasons I cannot supply.
Here are some I wrote down and find satisfaction upon regrading again and again.
Seek then
No learning from the starry men,
Who follow with the optic glass
The whirling ways of stars that pass
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams
That I who had sat,
Dumbfounded before a knave,
Should give my friend
A pretense of wit
But I, whose virtues are the definitions
Of the analytic mind, can neither close
The eye of the mind nor keep my tongue from speech
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
We’re vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle
And what dough beast, it’s hour come round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born
But louder sang the ghost, ‘what then?’
Here are some I wrote down and find satisfaction upon regrading again and again.
Seek then
No learning from the starry men,
Who follow with the optic glass
The whirling ways of stars that pass
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams
That I who had sat,
Dumbfounded before a knave,
Should give my friend
A pretense of wit
But I, whose virtues are the definitions
Of the analytic mind, can neither close
The eye of the mind nor keep my tongue from speech
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
We’re vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle
And what dough beast, it’s hour come round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born
But louder sang the ghost, ‘what then?’
May 6, 2025
3.5 stars. Some really beautiful poetry and imagery. A testament to Yeats’ artistic mind and creative outlook on the world around him.
There were a lot of poems that I loved and will come back to. But some were overcomplicated and rambling, and I found it hard to connect. Of course, that was just the style of the 20th century, but I found myself skimming these poems in hopes of finding another brilliant one that was more tightly crafted.
There were a lot of poems that I loved and will come back to. But some were overcomplicated and rambling, and I found it hard to connect. Of course, that was just the style of the 20th century, but I found myself skimming these poems in hopes of finding another brilliant one that was more tightly crafted.
June 9, 2020
This book took me nearly half a year, and it was worth it. Yeat’s poetry is achingly beautiful and often surprisingly humorous. I found the later poems in this collection particularly enjoyable.
“What beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this...
Why what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?”
“What beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this...
Why what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?”
August 30, 2025
This was a really enjoyable collection, chronicling Yeats’ career from start to finish. He covered a variety of subjects in his writing: love, politics, his own writing, and growing old. It was cool to see how his perspectives on these ideas evolved as he grew older and his writing style morphed. It was also cool to see him becoming self-referential in his later work.
November 28, 2023
Audiobook. ♥️
April 4, 2024
After three bad reviews of poetry books, I have learned to never ask the library/book store person for recommendations 😂😂.
October 21, 2024
Some of y’all aren’t wishing for the cloths of heaven, and frankly it shows
February 11, 2025
Some poets sing
While others grate,
Among the latter
Lies W.B. Yeats.
While others grate,
Among the latter
Lies W.B. Yeats.
February 16, 2025
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKO DEMAIS. TUDO É GREGO E TUDO É TRAGÉDIA! TEM DEUS, TEM GUERRA, TEM DOR E TEM MISÉRIA.
August 6, 2023
Há qualquer coisa em Yeats que fica aquém da centelha. Os poemas 'An Irish airman forsees his death' e 'After long silence' são brilhantes. Mas, para mim,Yeats é menor do que aquilo que de si dizem.
December 17, 2018
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
While some of the poems are a little too sing-songy for my liking - that is, I'm not the biggest fan of his super rhyme- and syllable-driven work - many are absolutely stunning. Poems about love and dreams, mysticism and myths--right up my alley.
I would love to do a full review but do not currently have the time. For now, I'll just list some of my favourites:
- The Song of the Happy Shepherd
- The Man who Dreamed of Faeryland
- The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner
- To Ireland in the Coming Times
- The Host of the Air
- Into the Twilight
- He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
- The Travail of Passion
- In the Seven Woods
- The Old Age of Queen Maeve
- Baile and Ailinn
- Words
- King and No King
- These are the Clouds
- The Two Kings
- Fallen Majesty
- Friends
- The Cold Heaven
- That the Night Come
- Solomon to Sheba
- The Hawk
- Ego Dominus Tuss
- Solomon and the Witch
- The Leaders of the Crowd
- The Second Coming
- A Prayer for my Daughter
A thought on the world today:
My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
Are full of passionate intensity.
While some of the poems are a little too sing-songy for my liking - that is, I'm not the biggest fan of his super rhyme- and syllable-driven work - many are absolutely stunning. Poems about love and dreams, mysticism and myths--right up my alley.
I would love to do a full review but do not currently have the time. For now, I'll just list some of my favourites:
- The Song of the Happy Shepherd
- The Man who Dreamed of Faeryland
- The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner
- To Ireland in the Coming Times
- The Host of the Air
- Into the Twilight
- He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
- The Travail of Passion
- In the Seven Woods
- The Old Age of Queen Maeve
- Baile and Ailinn
- Words
- King and No King
- These are the Clouds
- The Two Kings
- Fallen Majesty
- Friends
- The Cold Heaven
- That the Night Come
- Solomon to Sheba
- The Hawk
- Ego Dominus Tuss
- Solomon and the Witch
- The Leaders of the Crowd
- The Second Coming
- A Prayer for my Daughter
A thought on the world today:
My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
May 15, 2010
I don't have nearly enough background to deal with or adjudicate this collection. Things started to pick up for me with The Wild Swans at Coole and never looked backed. I didn't "get" many of the poems that dealt with Irish mythology, and I just didn't have the time to google each name associated with the various Irish rebellions. Someday. Lyrically, each poem was beautiful, sometimes quirky, and always oozing (sorry, but it's the best word) with subtext and emotion. In the uncollected poems toward the end, I was often disturbed by the thoughts coming from Yeats' pen. But then, so was he.
September 6, 2012
When you are old
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.
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.
May 27, 2018
Simply a wonderful introduction to the work of one of my absolute favourite poets. My copy will likely fall apart with rereading in years to come.
June 28, 2020
i mit hoved sammenligner jeg altid william butler yeats og john keats 1) fordi the smiths og "keats and yeats are on your side while wilde is on mine" fra cemetery gates og 2) fordi deres efternavne rimer, hvis man ignorerer at yeats er irsk og udtales yates. jeg var ikke stor fan af keats, så der var ikke meget at konkurrere med, men det skal ikke formindske hvordan yeats overvejer og gennemarbejder sine tematikker. til tider lidt 18-19th century incel/nice-guy-energy, der senere manifesteres i hans mussolini-sympati (u read that right 🥴), men honestly kunne bare grine af det, for er så stor fan af udsmykket, mytologisk, frodig, prærafaelitisk symbolik der får min sjæl til at synge og giver mig lyst til at romantisere mit eget liv på en studio ghibli-esque måde der for mit vedkommende ikke omfatter manual labor 😌.
July 18, 2021
Meh.
To be fair, I'm not immersed in the poetry scene, so I could be missing some of the appeal.
Also fair: more than one poem read race fetish-y.
Yeats is spectacular with imagery - I know I have more than a few highlighted passages. There were also a number of poems I reread four or five times before carrying on with the rest of the book. That wonderment diminished when poverty and race were mentioned. Apparently, poor people are funny and exoticizing anyone who isn't Yeats Himself™️ is his side hobby? Meanwhile, women were either disparaged, idolized, or a funky fresh two-in-one combo. Eugh....
Anyways, read it if you want - some of these poems are definitely worth the effort, but be prepared for everything else. Maybe just look up some of his greatest hits instead of this whole album, you feel?
I'm going to take a shower and focus on modern poetry for a while.
To be fair, I'm not immersed in the poetry scene, so I could be missing some of the appeal.
Also fair: more than one poem read race fetish-y.
Yeats is spectacular with imagery - I know I have more than a few highlighted passages. There were also a number of poems I reread four or five times before carrying on with the rest of the book. That wonderment diminished when poverty and race were mentioned. Apparently, poor people are funny and exoticizing anyone who isn't Yeats Himself™️ is his side hobby? Meanwhile, women were either disparaged, idolized, or a funky fresh two-in-one combo. Eugh....
Anyways, read it if you want - some of these poems are definitely worth the effort, but be prepared for everything else. Maybe just look up some of his greatest hits instead of this whole album, you feel?
I'm going to take a shower and focus on modern poetry for a while.
February 24, 2022
8/10
“Think where mans glory begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.”
“Though leaves are many, the root is one.”
“I only ask which way my journey lies, for he who made you bitter made you wise.”
“My contemplation turns on time, which has transfigured me.”
“The wrong of unshapely things is a wrong to great to be told, I hunger to build them anew.”
“But I, being poor, have only my dreams.
I have spread my dreams under your feet
tread softly, for you tread on my dreams.”
“Who could have foretold that the heart grows old.”
“To long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. Oh, when will it suffice?”
“That is no country for old men.”
I've been meaning to read more poetry this year. This reminded me of why. This is good.
“Think where mans glory begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.”
“Though leaves are many, the root is one.”
“I only ask which way my journey lies, for he who made you bitter made you wise.”
“My contemplation turns on time, which has transfigured me.”
“The wrong of unshapely things is a wrong to great to be told, I hunger to build them anew.”
“But I, being poor, have only my dreams.
I have spread my dreams under your feet
tread softly, for you tread on my dreams.”
“Who could have foretold that the heart grows old.”
“To long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. Oh, when will it suffice?”
“That is no country for old men.”
I've been meaning to read more poetry this year. This reminded me of why. This is good.
August 31, 2020
My rating is based on my taste in poetry.
This book gives a selection of Yeats's poetry throughout his career under a selection of themes. My preference has to be the poems based on nature and mysticism. After reading many of his poems which were of current affairs within his lifetime I wished I had a better knowledge of Irish history. There is a sense of humor in some of his early work but as he got older the themes dwell on old age, his talent, memories of the past and questioning the relevance of participation of his friends in the revolution.
After reading this book I have a better sense of the Celtic Revival and the mindset of this great Irish poet.
This book gives a selection of Yeats's poetry throughout his career under a selection of themes. My preference has to be the poems based on nature and mysticism. After reading many of his poems which were of current affairs within his lifetime I wished I had a better knowledge of Irish history. There is a sense of humor in some of his early work but as he got older the themes dwell on old age, his talent, memories of the past and questioning the relevance of participation of his friends in the revolution.
After reading this book I have a better sense of the Celtic Revival and the mindset of this great Irish poet.
May 6, 2021
May 2021: 3 Stars
Super hit or miss for me. I used post-its to highlight the poems that struck a chord with me, and I've counted eleven such post-its. I think I would have enjoyed Yeats's poems more thoroughly if I'd been analyzing them with a group. Alone, I found myself just getting annoyed with all his non-rhymes (like rhyming "move" with "love", etc.). The uneven cadences also were more distracting than anything for me- anytime I was pulled out of the scene Yeats had set, it was because the rhythm was suddenly off for some reason.
Anyway, I did find some nice gems in this book, and I'm glad to be more well-acquainted with his poetry now!
Super hit or miss for me. I used post-its to highlight the poems that struck a chord with me, and I've counted eleven such post-its. I think I would have enjoyed Yeats's poems more thoroughly if I'd been analyzing them with a group. Alone, I found myself just getting annoyed with all his non-rhymes (like rhyming "move" with "love", etc.). The uneven cadences also were more distracting than anything for me- anytime I was pulled out of the scene Yeats had set, it was because the rhythm was suddenly off for some reason.
Anyway, I did find some nice gems in this book, and I'm glad to be more well-acquainted with his poetry now!
February 1, 2022
Reading a full book of poetry by the same poet really gave me an insight into how Yeats’ poetry is constructed. I found it fascinating how his poetry seems to embody many of the features of Romantic poetry - beautiful imagery, an appreciation for nature, a focus on the relationship between the world and the individual - whilst also having modernist features. Several poems in the collection also focused on WW1 (one of my favourites was ‘On Being Asked for a War Poem’) and it really did feel like a wonderful insight into the transition between Romanticism and modernism. It was also a powerful reminder that neither period is as disconnected from our present as it might be tempting to presume!
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