The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume I: The Poems: Revised Second Edition

The late Richard J. Finneran was general editor, with George Mills Harper, of The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats for many years; series editor of The Poems in the Cornell Yeats; and editor of Yeats: An Annual of Critical and Textual Studies, among other works. He held the Hodges Chair of Excellence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; was a past president of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association; and served as executive director of the Society for Textual Scholarship.William Butler Yeats is generally considered to be Ireland’s greatest poet, living or dead, and one of the most important literary figures of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. 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. Though this edition has been reset and revised, the changes are not as shocking as the 1984 edition, which included 100 extra pages of notes, changes in language and punctuation, and, most significantly, a redefinition of the Last Poems . Richard Finneran has had the courage to reorder the poems according to notes that Yeats made shortly before his death. Readers may be surprised to find that "Under Ben Bulben," the poet's powerful and self-mythologizing epitaph, no longer ends the collection, as it has for more than 30 years. In its place they will discover the wistful "Politics": "How can I, that girl standing there, / My attention fix / On Roman or on Russian / Or on Spanish politics..." Yet devotees of either ending will agree that this is a truly necessary volume--indeed, one of the few. As Seamus Heaney writes, "All readers of Yeats will need this book; when they open it they will feel a surprise like that experienced by St. Brendan the Navigator and his crew when they disembarked upon an island that turned out to be the back of a dormant sea monster." --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. 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 alternate kindle_edition edition. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 1 Crossways 1 The Song of the Happy Shepherd The woods of Arcady are dead, And over is their antique joy; Of old the world on dreaming fed; Grey Truth is now her painted toy; Yet still she turns her restless head: But O, sick children of the world, Of all the many changing things In dreary dancing past us whirled, To the cracked tune that Chronos sings, Words alone are certain good. Where are now the warring kings, Word be-mockers? -- By the Rood Where are now the warring kings? An idle word is now their glory, By the stammering schoolboy said, Reading some entangled story: The kings of the old time are dead; The wandering earth herself may be Only a sudden flaming word, In clanging space a moment heard, Troubling the endless reverie. Then nowise worship dusty deeds, Nor seek, for this is also sooth, To hunger fiercely after truth, Lest all thy toiling only breeds New dreams, new dreams; there is no truth Saving in thine own heart. Seek, then, No learning from the starry men, Who follow with the optic glass The whirling ways of stars that pass -- Seek, then, for this is also sooth, No word of theirs -- the cold star-bane Has cloven and rent their hearts in twain, And dead is all their human truth. Go gather by the humming sea Some twisted, echo-harbouring shell, And to its lips thy story tell, And they thy comforters will be, Rewarding in melodious guile Thy fretful words a little while, Till they shall singing fade in ruth And die a pearly brotherhood; For words alone are certain good: Sing, then, for this is also sooth. I must be gone: there is a grave Where daffodil and lily wave, And I would please the hapless faun, Buried under the sleepy ground, With mirthful songs before the dawn. His shouting days with mirth were crowned; And still I dream he treads the lawn, Walking ghostly in the dew, Pierced by my glad singing through, My songs of old earth's dreamy youth: But ah! she dreams not now; dream thou! For fair are poppies on the brow: Dream, dream, for this is also sooth. 2 The Sad Shepherd There was a man whom Sorrow named his friend, And he, of his high comrade Sorrow dreaming, Went walking with slow steps along the gleaming And humming sands, where windy surges wend: And he called loudly to the stars to bend From their pale thrones and comfort him, but they Among themselves laugh on and sing alway: ardAnd then the man whom Sorrow named his friend Cried out, Dim sea, hear my most piteous story! The sea swept on and cried her old cry still, Rolling along in dreams from hill to hill. He fled the persecution of her glory And, in a far-off, gentle valley stopping, Cried all his story to the dewdrops glistening. But naught they heard, for they are always listening, The dewdrops, for the sound of their own dropping. And then the man whom Sorrow named his friend Sought once again the shore, and found a shell, And thought, I will my heavy story tell Till my own words, re-echoing, shall send Their sadness through a hollow, pearly heart; And my own tale again for me shall sing, And my own whispering words be comforting, And lo! my ancient burden may depart. Then he sang softly nigh the pearly rim; But the sad dweller by the sea-ways lone Changed all he sang to inarticulate moan Among her wildering whirls, forgetting him. 3 The Cloak, the Boat, and the Shoes 'What do you make so fair and bright?' 'I make the cloak of Sorrow: O lovely to see in all men's sight Shall be the cloak of Sorrow, In all men's sight.' 'What do you build with sails for flight?' 'I build a boat for Sorrow: O swift on the seas all day and night Saileth the rover Sorrow, All day and night.' 'What do you weave with wool so white?' 'I weave the shoes of Sorrow: Soundless shall be the footfall light In all men's ears of Sorrow, Sudden and light.' 4 Anashuya and Vijaya A little Indian temple in the Golden Age. Around it a garden; around that the forest. Anashuya, the young priestess, kneeling Within the temple. Anashuya. Send peace on all the lands and flickering corn. -- O, may tranquillity walk by his elbow When wandering in the forest, if he love No other. -- Hear, and may the indolent flocks Be plentiful. -- And if he love another, May panthers end him. -- Hear, and load our king With wisdom hour by hour. -- May we two stand, When we are dead, beyond the setting suns, A little from the other shades apart, With mingling hair, and play upon one lute. Vijaya [entering and throwing a lily at her]. Hail! hail, my Anashuya. Anashuya. No: be still. I, priestess of this temple, offer up Prayers for the land. Vijaya. I will wait here, Amrita. Anashuya. By mighty Brahma's ever-rustling robe, Who is Amrita? Sorrow of all sorrows! Another fills your mind. Vijaya. My mother's name. Anashuya [sings, coming out of the temple]. A sad, sad thought went by me slowly: Sigh, O you little stars! O sigh and shake your blue apparel! The sad, sad thought has gone from me now wholly: <font face=... --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Read more