The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats [Paperback]

William Butler Yeats (Author), Richard J. Finneran (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: September 9, 1996

The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats includes all of the poems authorized by Yeats for inclusion in his standard canon. Breathtaking in range, it encompasses the entire arc of his career, from luminous reworkings of ancient Irish myths and legends to passionate meditations on the demands and rewards of youth and old age, from exquisite, occasionally whimsical songs of love, nature, and art to somber and angry poems of life in a nation torn by war and uprising. In observing the development of rich and recurring images and themes over the course of his body of work, we can trace the quest of this century's greatest poet to unite intellect and artistry in a single magnificent vision.

Revised and corrected, this edition includes Yeats's own notes on his poetry, complemented by explanatory notes from esteemed Yeats scholar Richard J. Finneran. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats is the most comprehensive edition of one of the world's most beloved poets available in paperback.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

William Butler Yeats, whom many consider this century's greatest poet, began as a bard of the Celtic Twilight, reviving legends and Rosicrucian symbols. By the early 1900s, however, he was moving away from plush romanticism, his verse morphing from the incantatory rhythms of "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree" into lyrics "as cold and passionate as the dawn." At every stage, however, Yeats plays a multiplicity of poetic roles. There is the romantic lover of "When You Are Old" and "A Poet to His Beloved" ("I bring you with reverent Hands / The books of my numberless dreams..."). And there are the far more bitter celebrations of Maud Gonne, who never accepted his love and engaged in too much politicking for his taste: "Why should I blame her that she filled my days / With misery, or that she would of late / Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways, / Or hurled the little streets upon the great, / Had they but courage equal to desire?" There is also the poet of conscience--and confrontation. His 1931 "Remorse for Intemperate Speech" ends: "Out of Ireland have we come. / Great hatred, little room, / Maimed us at the start. / I carried from my mother's womb / A fanatic heart."

Yeats was to explore several more sides of himself, and of Ireland, before his Last Poems of 1938-39. Many are difficult, some snobbish, others occult and spiritualist. As Brendan Kennelly writes, Yeats "produces both poppycock and sublimity in verse, sometimes closely together." On the other hand, many prophetic masterworks are poppycock-free--for example, "The Second Coming" ("Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...") and such inquiries into inspiration as "Among School Children" ("O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?"). And at his best, Yeats extends the meaning of love poetry beyond the obviously romantic: love becomes a revolutionary emotion, attaching the poet to friends, history, and the passionate life of the mind. --Kerry Fried

Review

Oedipus At Colonus: Colonus' Praise
An Acre Of Grass
Adam's Curse
Aedh Thinks Of Those Who Have Spoken Evil Of His Beloved
After Long Silence
Against Unworthy Praise
All Souls' Night; Epilogue To 'a Vision'
All Things Can Tempt Me
Alternative Song For The Severed Head In 'king Of Great ...'
Among School Children
Anashuya And Vijaya
Another Song Of A Fool
The Apparitions
An Appointment
Are You Content?
The Arrow
At Algeciras - A Meditation Upon Death
At Galway Races (1)
At The Abbey Theatre (imitated From Ronsard)
Baile And Aillinn
The Ballad Of Father Gilligan
The Ballad Of Father O'hart
The Ballad Of Moll Magee
The Ballad Of The Foxhunter
The Balloon Of The Mind
Beautiful Lofty Things: O'leary's Noble Head
Beggar To Beggar Cried
The Black Tower
The Blessed
Blood And The Moon
Broken Dreams
A Bronze Head
Brown Penny
Byzantium
The Cap And Bells
The Cat And The Moon
The Chambermaid's First Song
The Chambermaid's Second Song
The Choice
Church And State
The Circus Animals' Desertion
The Cloak, The Boat, And The Shoes
A Coat
The Cold Heaven
The Collar-bone Of A Hare
Colonel Martin
Come Gather Round Me, Parnellites
The Coming Of Wisdom With Time
Coole Park And Ballylee, 1931
Coole Park, 1929
The Countess Cathleen In Paradise
A Cradle Song
A Crazed Girl
The Crazed Moon
Crazy Jane And Jack The Journeyman
Crazy Jane And The Bishop
Crazy Jane Grown Old Looks At The Dancers
Crazy Jane On God
Crazy Jane On The Day Of Judgment
Crazy Jane On The Mountain
Crazy Jane Reproved
Crazy Jane Talks With The Bishop
Cuchulain Comforted
Cuchulain's Fight With The Sea
The Curse Of Cromwell
The Dancer At Cruachan And Cro-patrick
The Dawn
Death
Dedication To A Book Of Stories Selected From The Irish Novelists (2)
A Deep-sworn Vow
The Delphic Oracle Upon Plotinus
Demon And Beast
A Dialogue Of Self And Soul
The Dolls
The Double Vision Of Michael Robartes
Down By The Salley Gardens
A Dream Of Death
A Drinking Song
A Drunken Man's Praise Of Sobriety
Easter 1916
Ego Dominus Tuus
Ephemera
The Everlasting Voices
A Faery Song, Sung By The People Of Faery Over Diarmuid
Fallen Majesty
The Falling Of The Leaves
The Fascination Of What's Difficult
Fergus And The Druid
The Fiddler Of Dooney
The Fish
The Fisherman
The Folly Of Being Comforted
For Anne Gregory
Fragment
Fragment
A Friend's Illness
Friends
The Gift Of Harun Al-rashid
Girl's Song
Gratitude To The Unkown Instructions
The Great Day
The Grey Rock
The Gyres
The Happy Townland
The Hawk
He Gives His Beloved Certain Rhymes
He Hears The Cry Of The Sedge
He Mourns For The Change That Has Come Upon Him And Beloved
He Remembers Forgotten Beauty
He Reproves The Curlew
He Tells Of A Valley Full Of Lovers
He Tells Of The Perfect Beauty
He Thinks Of His Past Greatness When A Part Of ... Heaven
He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven
The Heart Of The Woman
Her Anxiety
Her Dream
Her Praise
The Hero, The Girl, And The Fool
High Talk
His Bargain
His Confidence
His Dream
His Phoenix
His Wishes His Beloved Were Dead
The Host Of The Air
The Hosting Of The Sidhe
Hound Voice
The Hour Before Dawn (1)
I Am Of Ireland
An Image From A Past Life
Imitated From The Japanese
In Memory Of Alfred Pollexfen
In Memory Of Eva Gore-booth And Con Markiewicz
In Memory Of Major Robert Gregory
In Tara's Halls
In The Seven Woods
The Indian To His Love
The Indian Upon God
Into The Twilight
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
John Kinsella's Lament For Mrs. Mary Moore
King And No King
The Lady's First Song
The Lady's Second Song
The Lady's Third Song
The Lady's Third Song
The Lake Isle Of Innisfree
The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner (2)
Lapis Lazuli (for Henry Clifton)
The Leaders Of The Crowd
Leda And The Swan
Lines Written In Dejection
The Living Beauty
Long-legged Fly
Love's Loneliness
The Lover Asks Forgiveness Because Of His Many Moods
The Lover Mourns For The Loss Of Love
The Lover Pleads With His Friends For Old Friends
The Lover Speaks To The Hearers Of His Songs In Coming Days
The Lover Tells Of The Rose In His Heart
The Lover's Song
Lullaby
Mad As The Mist And Snow
The Madness Of King Goll
The Magi
Maid Quiet
The Man And The Echo
The Man Who Dreamed Of Faeryland
A Man Young And Old
The Mask
A Meditation In Time Of War
The Meditation Of The Old Fisherman
Meditations In Time Of Civil War: 1. Ancestral Houses
Meditations In Time Of Civil War: 2. My House
Meditations In Time Of Civil War: 3. My Table
Meditations In Time Of Civil War: 4. My Descendants
Meditations In Time Of Civil War: 5. The Road At My Door
Meditations In Time Of Civil War: 6. The Stare's Nest
Meditations In Time Of Civil War: 7. I See Phantoms Of Hate
Memory
A Memory Of Youth
Men Improve With The Years
Michael Robartes And The Dancer
Michael Robartes Bids His Beloved Be At Peace
A Model For The Laureate
Mohini Chatterjee
The Moods
The Mother Of God
The Mountain Tomb
The Mountain Tomb: 1. To A Child Dancing In The Wind
The Municipal Galley Revisited
A Nativity
Never Give All The Heart, For Love
The New Faces
News For The Delphic Oracle
Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen
The Nineteenth Century And After
No Second Troy
O Do Not Love Too Long
Oil And Blood
The Old Age Of Queen Maeve
Old Memory
The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The Water
The Old Stone Cross
Old Tom Again
On A Picture Of A Black Centaur By Edmund Dulac
On A Political Prisoner
On Being Asked For A War Poem
On Hearing That The Students Of Our New University Joined Agitation ..
On Those That Hated 'the Playboy Of The Western World'
On Woman
Owen Aherne And His Dancers
Parnell
Parnell's Funeral
Paudeen
Peace
The People
The Phases Of The Moon
The Pilgrim
The Pity Of Love
The Players Ask For A Blessing On The Psalteries And On Themselves
The Poet Pleads With The Elemental Powers
A Poet To His Beloved
Politics
A Prayer For My Daughter
A Prayer For My Son
A Prayer For Old Age
A Prayer On Going Into My House
Presences
Quarrel In Old Age
The Ragged Wood
The Realists
The Realists: 1. The Witch
The Realists: 2. The Peacock
Reconciliation
Red Hanrahan's Song About Ireland
Remorse For Intemperate Speech
Responsibilities: Prologue
The Results Of Thought
Roger Casement (after Reading 'the Forged Casement Diaries')
The Rose Of Battle
The Rose Of Peace
The Rose Of The World
The Rose Tree
Running To Paradise
The Sad Shepherd
Sailing To Byzantium
The Saint And The Hunchback
The Scholars
The Second Coming
The Secret Rose
September 1913
The Seven Sages
The Shadowy Waters: A Dramatic Poem
The Shadowy Waters: Introductory Lines
The Shadowy Waters: The Harp Of Aengus
Shepherd And Goatherd
Sixteen Dead Men
Solomon And The Witch
Solomon To Sheba
A Song
A Song
The Song Of The Happy Shepherd
The Song Of The Old Mother
The Song Of Wandering Aengus
Song, Fr. The Player Queen
The Sorrow Of Love (1)
Spilt Milk
The Spirit Medium
The Spur
The Statesman's Holiday
Statistics
The Statues
A Stick Of Incense
The Stolen Child
Stream And Sun At Glendalough
Supernatural Songs: 1. Ribh At Tomb Of Baile And Aillinn
Supernatural Songs: 10. Conjunctions
Supernatural Songs: 11. A Needle's Eye
Supernatural Songs: 12. Meru
Supernatural Songs: 2. Ribh Denounces Patrick
Supernatural Songs: 3. Ribh In Ecstasy
Supernatural Songs: 4. There
Supernatural Songs: 5. Ribh Considers Christian Love In Sufficent
Supernatural Songs: 6. He And She
Supernatural Songs: 7. What Magic Drum?
Supernatural Songs: 8. Whence Had They Come?
Supernatural Songs: 9. The Four Ages Of Man
Sweet Dancer
Swift's Epitaph
Symbols
That The Night Come
These Are The Clouds About The Fallen Sun
Those Dancing Days Are Gone
Those Images
A Thought From Propertius
The Three Beggars
The Three Bushes
The Three Hermits
Three Marching Songs: 1
Three Marching Songs: 2
Three Marching Songs: 3
The Three Monuments
Three Movements
Three Songs To The One Burden: 1
Three Songs To The One Burden: 2
Three Songs To The One Burden: 3
Three Songs To The Same Tune: 1
Three Songs To The Same Tune: 2
Three Songs To The Same Tune: 3
Three Things
To A Child Dancing In The Wind: 2
To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing
To A Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators ...
To A Shade
To A Squirrel At Kyle-na-no
To A Wealthy Man
To A Young Beauty
To A Young Girl
To An Isle In The Water
To Be Carved On A Stone At Thoor Ballylee (1)
To Dorothy Wellesley
To His Heart, Bidding It Have No Fear
To Ireland In The Coming Times
To Some I Have Talked With By The Fire
To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time
Tom At Cruachan
Tom O'roughley
Tom The Lunatic
Towards Break Of Day
The Tower
The Travail Of Passion
The Two Kings
Two Songs From A Play ('the Resurrection'): 1
Two Songs From A Play ('the Resurrection'): 2
Two Songs Of A Fool: 1
Two Songs Of A Fool: 2
Two Songs Rewritten For The Tune's Sake: 1
Two Songs Rewritten For The Tune's Sake: 2
The Two Trees
The Unappeasable Host
Under Ben Bulben
Under Saturn
Under The Moon
Under The Round Tower
Upon A Dying Lady
Upon A House Shaken By The Land Agitation
Vacillation
The Valley Of The Black Pig
Veronica's Napkin
The Wanderings Of Oisin
What Then?
What Was Lost
The Wheel
When Helen Lived
When You Are Old
While I, From The Reed-throated Whisperer
The White Birds
Who Goes With Fergus?
Why Should Not Old Men Be Mad?
The Wild Old Wicked Man
The Wild Swans At Coole
Wisdom
The Withering Of The Boughs
A Woman Homer Sung
A Woman Young And Old: 1. Father And Child
A Woman Young And Old: 10. Meeting
A Woman Young And Old: 11. From The 'antigone'
A Woman Young And Old: 2. Before The World Was Made
A Woman Young And Old: 3. A First Confession
A Woman Young And Old: 4. Her Triumph
A Woman Young And Old: 5. Consolation
A Woman Young And Old: 6. Chosen
A Woman Young And Old: 8. Her Vision In The Wood
A Woman Young And Old: 9. A Last Confession
Words
Young Man's Song
Youth And Age
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 2nd Revised edition (September 9, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684807319
• ISBN-13: 978-0684807317
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.4 x 8.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #41 in Books > Literature & Fiction > British > Poetry

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

141 of 141 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A good edition of a great poet October 4, 2002

By Russ Mayes VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

There isn't much question whether Yeats was a great poet, just where on the all time great list he falls. Whether you call him the greatest poet of the 20th century, or the greatest since Wordsworth, Milton or Shakespeare, his accomplishments are clear.

Beyond that, why should anyone buy this edition as opposed to any of the other available? First, the collected poems gives you a sense of his development and interests, not just the highlights of his greates poems. Second, and more importantly, this edition is well-annotated. The notes are thorough without being unduly interpretive--they tell you what an allusion refers to, not how it affects the meaning of the poem. The notes aim to be useful to any reader, regardless of background. As a result, western readers will come across odd sounding notes such as "Jesus Christ is the founder of Christianity" or "Hamlet is the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name." Still, you'll be thankful for such prosaic entries as they explain Irish myth and locate historical allusions. All in all, it's an edition that belongs on any poetry lover's shelf.

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars magnificent poems on cheap paper October 23, 2005

By Barnaby Thieme

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I trust it goes without saying that William Butler Yeats is one of the greatest English-language poets of all time. This volume contains his entire body of verse, and is a magnificent treasure trove that will delight and stun the reader for decades.

I give two stars to the cheap materials used to create this masterpiece. I literally had this book out of the Amazon box for a matter of hours before the cover started to curl of its own accord, as though possessed by a poetry-hating demon. The paper is low-grade and coarse, with an unappealing brownish tinge.

Despite my love of Yeats, I find that I unconsciously tend to keep this book on the shelf just to keep its ugliness out of site, and I am by no means an aesthete. If you can find a slightly nicer version, it is worth paying a little extra.

75 of 85 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A strange, deceptive beauty August 11, 2000

By An Mhuruch

Format:Paperback

When I first started reading Yeats, I was very interested in Old Irish myths. Perhaps more importantly, I was also younger and more romantically inclined than I am nowadays. His early poetry seemed to possess an airy beauty, sweet in the best sense of the word and reminiscent of his contemporary Tagore. I felt bewitched.

Some time later, I read his poems again and felt deceived. They were whimsical, immature, unfinished. I could not understand why he was so highly praised. Whenever somebody told me he/she liked Yeats, I felt an embarrassment. I wondered if I had failed Yeats or if he was the deceiver.

However, when I approached him for the third time, I had a strange experience I can only compare with reading Nietzsche. I read a line or two, they seem too simple and crude. I read them a second time, they become opaque. A third time, they yield and I feel as if playing with a caleidoscope. Now at least I am wiser; I know I will be profoundly touched, annoyed and bored in turns, but I also know I will always return to Yeats, because a quarrel with him is better than a constant love for another poet.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Caveat Emptor October 31, 2009

By T. Holland

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Inexpensive, but for a reason. A very quixotic selection of Yeats poems; most of the best ones are not there. And, by the way, the reviews on the website are of another book (Yeat's collection of Blake poems). Altogether disappointing.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hauntingingly beautiful, ageless poetry! September 11, 2005

By S. Schwartz

Format:Paperback

I had never taken the time to enjoy Yeats' poetry before although I had read single poems on occasion. It is an experience not to be missed to sit and read his better-known poetry all in one sitting. The beauty of the words and imagery is then much more apparent. Yeats writes a lot about mysticism and the occult, and ancient Ireland comes alive as you read his beautiful words. I read that Yeats, although he wrote poetry all his life, would only put down three or four lines per day. He was such a perfectionist that he wanted to make sure that his lines were perfect. It seems such a tedious procss, but what beautiful words he wrote! His time could not have been better spent than in creating three beautiful and perfect lines per day. His poetry changed as he aged, but it kept getting better and better. His earlier poetry portrayed a lot about faeries and the dream world the he lived in himself when he was young. The lyrics were tuneful and romantic. As he aged, the romanticism changed considerably and his poems were harder-driven with very deep messages underneath the words. These are truly masterpieces, and Yeats comes by his reputation as one of the greatest English writing poets of all time.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reader's copy of the complete canon; not an art piece of bookmaking, but a book to be read February 10, 2009

By C. Scanlon VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This review refers to Finneran's Revised Second Edition (paperback) 8x5x1.25 inches in size.

Much mention made here of the quality of the paper upon which these priceless and comprehensive poems are here printed.

This is a reader's copy, something to carry and to read. It is not furnishings for your room. It is not furniture. It is not personal adornment. This is the book of Life, to be opened, to be read.

Yes your reading may take its toll upon the vulnerable, gentle binding. Yes, your reading may find one day pages browning, of the old paperstock similar to old paperback books. But this book is to be read, not closed and saved and never seen. Read this book.

If you wish a book for adornment more than for reading, a book which may also withstand intensive reading over a lifetime, please go for the more costly The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume I The Poems. You will still use this humble, serviceable paperback book for your daily reading of Yeats, your nightly study of his lyric and lore.

This is the book you may write in with joy and no regrets. It even has extra sheets for such a notation, and generous margins for your personal annotation and other marginalia, the ennegrams which arise upon dreaming with Yeats.

I can add nothing to what has already been said regarding the need within the human soul to read Yeats, to know Yeats, to love Yeats, to feel Yeats nearby throughout our long, lonely pilgrimage here. I can only defend this particular copy of Mr. Yeat's complete selection of his poetry for his official and authorized canon.

You will find much which is useful here, from the great Mr.... Finneran, including notes to the notes which Mr. Yeats himself wrote for his poetry. You will find the indexes you will need, of first lines, etc. You will not find someone to help you find from which particular poem those famous words we so often here, which have entered our daily speech, and which first appeared with Mr. Yeats, now used in so many cultural contexts, for instance: Things Fall Apart: A Novel. "The center will not hold . . ." For this you need to type in every word and do a search; perhaps this is done elsewhere, perhaps through the ambitious Kindle project at its own edition of this most valuable book: COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS.

But above all, read this book, each day. Do not be ashamed by the humble appearance of its paper, any more than you would by the appearance of the poor old woman who becomes Ireland herself. This is the book you can live with, like the old boots you wear each day, which carry you through your work, which though scuffed and scratched and nicked and marked, get you to get the job done, generously, unknown, humble, generously.

Be not ashamed by this book. Read her, and you grow to love her, to know pride, and joy, and to love.

Read this now. And also see of course Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form. Read more ›