W.B. Yeats: The Love Poems

by W.B. Yeats

This collection of Yeats's love poetry begins with his youthful, romantic idealism. It follows with his disillusionment in middle age after Maud Gonne rejected him, and reflects the change in his poetry to a more direct, austere and forceful style. Yeat's comments on his loves in later life are particularly evocative and provide deeply moving portraits of people and places. They combine much of the beauty he created and imparted to the Celtic Revival with his later outspoken, sardonic treatment of sexuality. In old age Yeats wrote with an increasing sense of urgency, at times of disappointment and even of tragedy, but he continued to portray the experience of love with poignancy and insight. Right up to his death his love poems reflect the developing mind of a genius, still capable of remaking himself, his image and his ideas with compelling immediacy.

Genres: Poetry, Ireland, Classics

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." He was the first Irishman so honored. Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929).

Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo. He studied poetry in his youth, and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and those slow paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as to the Pre-Raphaelite poets. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
--from Wikipedia

Reviews

[laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

yeats & wilde,,, my irish literary kings with questionable morals.

5 stars simply bc i am a sucker for love poems although! not the biggest fan of his cousin being one of his muses x

i mean?!? this dude mentions feet or the moon in EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of his poems?
loved the moon theme but i cant say the same for his little piggies obsession 🤨🤨

also what’s up with that one poem being 7 pages long 😐

anyway i loved how it was split into romantic idealism, romantic realism,,, etc!!!

fave poems! ;
the sorrow of love
when you are old
he remembers forgotten beauty***!!
he wishes for the cloths of heaven
never give all the heart
a deep-sworn vow
consolation
human dignity***!!
after long silence***!!

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was cute but what makes it even cuter is that my dad gifted it to my mum :)

[Morgan Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I generally hate poetry but I still loved this. 5/5 just for this poem:

When You Are Old
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

[Barbara Sibbald]

I had read poems by Yeats in collections and anthologies, but this was the first time I'd settled into a volume exclusively devoted to his work. And what a joy it was! The works are varied and wonderful, delving into mythology and his personal relationship, Irish lore and politics and automatic writing! I learned about him too, his passions and his loves, especially for Maud Gonne (now I want to know more about her).