Review

`A new and authoritative selection of the poems of the man who is still probably the most popular 20th-century English-language poet. ... A revealing introduction and extensive notes make this a worthy addition to the Oxford Authors series.' Oxford Times Leisure section, 11 July 1997

`a superb achievement and surely among the best accounts ever written of a great poet deeply involved in the struggles and controversies of his country at a critical moment in its history' Times Literary Supplement

`the work of a specialist ... meticulously researched book ... almost as much weight is given to Yeats as a historical figure - an icon of nationalism - as to the poet ... a quietly passionate book, displaying its virtues in deft prose and cultivated argument' David Horspool, The Guardian

Product Description

This is the first one-volume selection of Yeats's work to include plays, criticism, and other prose writings alongside the poems. As a result it offers a unique perspective on the connectedness of Yeats's literary output, showing how his aesthetic, spiritual, and political development was reflected in everything he wrote. W. B. Yeats was born in 1865, only 38 years after the death of William Blake, and died in 1939, the contemporary of Ezra Pound and James Joyce. His career spanned two centuries and this anthology represents the full range of his achievement, from the Romantic early poems of Crossways and the symbolist masterpiece The Wind Among the Reeds to Last Poems. Myth and folk-tale influence both his poems and his plays, represented here by Cathleen Ni Houlihan and Deirdre among others. In his critical essays Yeats expounds his idiosyncratic magical symbolism and a selection of occult writings further explores the profound importance of the spirit world to his life and work. Political speeches, autobiographical writings, and a selection of letters complete the edition.