Selected Poems (Poetry Essentials)

A mystical dreamer and leader of the Irish Literary Revival, romantic and modernist, Nobel prizewinner, dramatist and, above all, poet, W.B.Yeats starts writing with the motive of putting his 'very self' into his poems. T.S.Eliot, one of many who affirms the Irishman's greatness, described Yeats as 'one of those few whose history is the history of their own time, who are part of the consciousness of an age which cannot be understood without them.' For anyone concerned in the literature of the twentieth century, Yeat's poetry claims to be read. This volume combines poetry from the nostalgic charming early lyrics by which he is still best remembered, to the marvelous later work, which put beyond question his position as the principal poet of his age. From mastery tellings of old Irish myths and legends to eloquent meditations on the clamors and rewards of youth and old age, these elegant, occasionally playful songs of love, nature and art stand in dramatic comparison to the obscure and angry poems of life in a nation changed by war and disturbance. In the affluent and frequent imagery of the rose, the gyre and the tower the reader can trace Yeats's quest to join intellect and artistry in one fascinating ideal. Included in this edition, the play "Countess Cathleen" tales place in a historically in Ireland during a famine. The idealistic Countess of the title sells her soul to the devil so that she can save her tenants from starvation and from damnation for having sold their own souls. After her death, she is redeemed, as her motives were altruistic and ascend to Heaven.