| Title | : | Selected Poems and Four Plays |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0684826461 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780684826462 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 270 |
| Publication | : | First published September 9, 1996 |
Scholars, students, and all who delight in Yeats's varied music and sheer quality will rejoice in this expanded edition. As the introduction observes, "Early and late he has the simple, indispensable gift of enchanting the ear....He was also the poet who, while very much of his own day in Ireland, spoke best to the people of all countries. And though he plunged deep into arcane studies, his themes are most clearly the general ones of life and death, love and hate, man's condition, and history's meanings. He began as a sometimes effete post-Romantic, heir to the pre-Raphaelites, and then, quite naturally, became a leading British Symbolist; but he grew at last into the boldest, most vigorous voice of this century." Selected Poems and Four Plays represents the essential achievement of the greatest twentieth-century poet to write in English.
Selected Poems and Four Plays Reviews
-
Oh Yeats, Oh Yeats,
Your words poured into my head
As water through a sieve;
You bade Swift undead,
Mourned Ireland's plight,
And waited the soul's reprieve.
But neither verse nor play
Could hold my weary eye.
So get thee behind me,
Upon the shelf I send you back;
Get thee behind me,
There are other books to crack. -
Poetry would sound so much better in an (probably drunken) Irish lilt.
My first major exposure to Yeats was wonderful. But by the same token, limited. Reading the notes in the back of this collection of poems and plays (I skipped the plays, they didn't appeal), makes me realize that my affinity for poetry is more primal and base than the "professional" critic. I prefer poems and lines that punch me in the gut. And many times Yeats does this to full effect. I'm less concerned with the "analysis" of poetry than with its impact.
With that comes a full confession....I DESPISE Instagram poets (J iron Word, Atticus, et al.) You know what I mean. Uniformly male. Uniformly "empowering" to women. And utterly banal. There are a thousand "I am the storm" poems and poets floating out there for women to double-tap but they are just so very specious and self-affirming to be utterly worthless. Give me poetry that makes me REGRET. That makes me SIGH. That makes me YEARN, then we're talking. Don't blow smoke up my ass and call it inspiration.
Yeats does this very well. Especially in his earlier poems. Maybe that's a function of youth (though I personally think the most impactful poems are those produced when the poet has moved past that phase). But nevertheless, Yeats writes of passion, regret, and unrequited love like no other. It's wonderful.
My critiques are exclusively Anglocentric. I'm too damn 'MURICAN to feel much for his poems focused on Irish myth/folklore or Irish independence. They're perfectly fine to read, but they left me cold because I was unable to relate. That's mostly a failing of mine, I recognize.
Overall, a wonderful collection. -
For the past several years I've had various books of poetry sitting by my chair that I usually read a poem or two from late in the evening. It's a habit I've gotten into that seems to ease any tensions from the day. I've just recently been adding them to my Goodreads list as I complete them. I think the reason I hadn't up to now is that I really don't know what to say, just that I like them or I don't. I just don't have the intellect to properly analyze them. Anyway, this is one I completed last night. It's a reread that I first read, probably, twenty years ago. My favorite poem in the book is "The Song of the Old Mother" written in 1894 about a mothers work. Other poems that stood out to me "A Man Young and Old" and "All Things Can Tempt Me" but there are many others that I could list. Yeats poetry definitely has a feel for the period they were written in but are still marvelous.
-
There’s no doubt about it: Yeats was a great poet, who wrote great poetry. I really enjoyed reading his poetry like this, it gave me a better feel for his life’s work as a whole.
There were quite a few poems in here that I really liked and will be going back to, particularly some of his romantic poems. It helped that I already know a bit about his lover, Maude Gonne. Overall, his diction, and the flow of his poetry, can be very enchanting and beautiful. -
Yeats’ poetry is elegant, delicate. I have not been properly educated on poetry in any form, sub Paradise Lost and some meagre attempts at Shakespeare. This semester I finally was introduced to Yeats, Eliot, and Shaw (mostly plays, though Eliot argued that drama was a form of poetic expression) and I am in love, to put it simply. The dissonant struggle between life and art that Yeats tackles in his poetry throughout his life makes the collection one brimming with universality, convenience, yet packed with allusions and analytical possibility. Some of my favorite works are those that take time, effort, and outside sources to fully understand. That is what one gets with Yeats, as well as much of the best poets, authors, etc.
-
*read for british poetry class*
-
I'm actually not reading this much now so maybe it shouldn't be in my currently reading, but I had a couple weeks where I had really bad insomnia and was reading this to help me get to sleep. I always had a vague idea that I probably liked Yeats but wasn't actually very familiar with his work, and then I read the intro to this book and I'm glad I did because it's basically like, "Yeats makes gazillions of references and allusions to super obscure things that you aren't gonna know, and neither do most people, so you should just sort of read his work and enjoy the sound and feeling of it without getting too hung up on understanding what the hell he's saying, exactly." Or at least, that's how I interpreted the intro, & have been reading his poems accordingly, and so far so good. In any case, his poems have been pleasant enough that they've successfully enabled me to get to sleep at night.
-
This elegant collection of the poet's work takes us from his early, idealistic times, to his final days and mortally aware literature. Yeats's poetry is hyper-representative of Ireland, oftentimes exhibiting anthropomorphic figures of the country in his tale-like sing-song rhyming structures and poetic plots. Interspersed throughout, though, are his heavy Irish revolutionary thoughts, his lover's laments (damn you, Maude Gonne), and his pensive final summation of life and art.
There are some truly deep and beautiful poems in this collection, enough to make you read again and again. The four plays, included throughout, likewise mirror Yeats's fascination with Irish politics, literature and lore, and love.
Perhaps Ireland's greatest poet (and THAT is a distinction), a collection of Yeats should be on every shelf. -
It's been close to twenty years since I picked up Yeats. I was reminded of the tremendous beauty of his work when a few years ago, I came across the final verse of "The Second Coming" at a photo exhibit at the Met. I found the same poem a few weeks ago and decided to purchase this book. I breezed through it and it brought me back to my college days studying his likes and that of Ezra Pound, e.e. cummings, and Edna St Vincent Millay. Poetry as they wrote it is a lost art, perhaps even a lost language. In such hardened and dark times as we now face, it was great to venture back into a landscape of such ethereal beauty. Though his obsession with death lingers in all verse here, there is a natural ease to the flow of his words and rarely is one ever out of place.
-
I couldn't find the exact e-book called just "Poems" from "Gutenberg" project with some plays and other poetry, which I am currently reading, but this one seems to be the closest to it with its content and volume.
So, I just read "The Countess Cathleen" and several poems about Fergus and The Druid and Cuchulain and his son ("The Death of Cuchulain"), and I have to say this was one of the most absorbing reads I have ever had in my life. I would never expect that I will enjoy reading a play so much! Hopefully, all Yeats lovers will pardon my expression: I can't help but saying they were f*ckin' awesome!! :D -
I read this collection too fast, a couple poems a night just before going to sleep, and that's not the way to read Yeats. You need resources nearby for looking up his references (unless you have a really strong background in classical literature, Irish mythology, and the past century and a half or so of the history of Ireland) to fully appreciate many of the poems in this collection.
Nevertheless, much of what you can understand and some of what you can't, you are stirred by and love. -
Some quite excellent poetry, some not so much. Reminds me some of T S Eliot. Many excellent one-or-two-liners in the middle of mediocre work. Lots of literary allusions, philosophical thoughts, historical mentions and theological stuff.
-
This collection was my introduction to Yeats, the Irish author of gorgeous and powerful verse that has deeply moved me for two decades. I'm forever grateful my girlfriend (now my wife) bought it for me.
-
One poem:
Adam's Curse. -
Many was the dreamy sigh I spent over this collection of poems and plays. Oh, darling William, keeper of my collegiate heart!
-
No matter who you are or what your interests, I can find at least one poem here that will move you deeply.
-
a powerful glimpse into what was then the future of literature, with an added history lesson and analysis of the [still ongoing:] Irish-English political struggle.
-
Selected Poems And Four Plays by William Butler Yeats (1996)
-
Most certainly deserves closer attention than the one read through I gave it. Many poems I've never read before but found very moving.
-
There are good annotated remarks, and the excellent service resources to continue to reading Years.
-
i dont like poetry. but this isn't so bad yet.
-
I sorely enjoyed this book, I love Yeats and having a chance to again re-read some of his works was a nice change of pace.
