The Collected Poems of W.B.Yeats

W.B.YeatswasRomanticandModernist,mysticaldreamerandleaderoftheIrishLiteraryRevival,Nobelprizewinner,dramatistand,aboveall,poet.Hebeganwritingwiththeintentionofputtinghisveryselfintohispoems.T.S.Eliot,oneofmanywhoproclaimedtheIrishmansgreatness,describedhimasoneofthosefewwhosehistoryisthehistoryoftheirowntime,whoarepartoftheconsciousnessofanagewhichcannotbeunderstoodwithoutthem.Foranyoneinterestedintheliteratureofthelatenineteenthcenturyandthetwentiethcentury,Yeats'sworkisessential.Thisvolumegathersthefullrangeofhispublishedpoetry,fromthehauntinglybeautifulearlylyrics(bywhichheisstillfondlyremembered)tothemagnificentlaterpoemswhichputbeyondquestionhisstatusasmajorpoetofmoderntimes.Paradoxical,proudandpassionate,Yeatsspeakstodayaseloquentlyasever.