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A Poet to His Beloved: The Early Love Poems of W.B. Yeats
As a young man, William Butler Yeats was deeply affected by the idea of romantic love, or, as he called it, "the old high way of love." Characteristically, much of his early poetry that which was written prior to 1910, is poetry that belongs to courtship.
When Yeats was twenty-three years old, he met and fell in love with the beautiful Irish nationalist, Maud Gonne. Although she repeatedly refused to marry Yeats, Maud would become the object of his passion and his poetry. The emotional power in many of Yeats' early poems is shaped by the one-sidedness of his affair with Maud, but the poems themselves remain hopeful and bitter-sweet, pure in their language and attitudes about love.
The forty-one poems collected in A Poet to his Beloved represent some of Yeats's most evocative and passionate early love poems. These versed are simple, lyrical, and often dreamy, and they speak knowingly of innocence and beauty, passion and desire, devotion and the fear of rejection.
When Yeats was twenty-three years old, he met and fell in love with the beautiful Irish nationalist, Maud Gonne. Although she repeatedly refused to marry Yeats, Maud would become the object of his passion and his poetry. The emotional power in many of Yeats' early poems is shaped by the one-sidedness of his affair with Maud, but the poems themselves remain hopeful and bitter-sweet, pure in their language and attitudes about love.
The forty-one poems collected in A Poet to his Beloved represent some of Yeats's most evocative and passionate early love poems. These versed are simple, lyrical, and often dreamy, and they speak knowingly of innocence and beauty, passion and desire, devotion and the fear of rejection.
66 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
7 people are currently reading
449 people want to read
About the author
W.B. Yeats
2,037 books2,586 followersWilliam 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
August 5, 2016
I loved idea of him expressing his feelings for his love in a poem, when I was reading I could understand the emotions that he was communicating especially because I was reading it with my dad. My favourite poem was He Tells Of A Valley Full Of Lovers because one of the lines said, "With her cloud-pale eyelids falling on dream-dimmed eyes", both my dad and me liked it.
September 25, 2025
Yeats is a bit too redundantly perfect for me. He’s also so dramatic: “no one has ever loved but you and I”, “for everything that’s lovely is but a brief, dreamy, kind delight”, a bit much if you ask me. But he wrote this…
“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;”
…so I can’t hate on him too much.
“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;”
…so I can’t hate on him too much.
February 3, 2022
I got this book at a book fair in the summer for €1. It is missing its dust cover but apart from that is in pristine condition, even down to its ribbon!
Yeats is my favourite poet. I have loved him since school. These early poems are sublime and as I read this aloud, the words are just beautiful rolling off the tongue.
My favourite is in here, "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven". Just gorgeous writing.
This little book is a treasure now. I love the cream pages, the art in it via paintings, the purple cover, and the little ribbon.
Thrilled with my €1 find!
Yeats is my favourite poet. I have loved him since school. These early poems are sublime and as I read this aloud, the words are just beautiful rolling off the tongue.
My favourite is in here, "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven". Just gorgeous writing.
This little book is a treasure now. I love the cream pages, the art in it via paintings, the purple cover, and the little ribbon.
Thrilled with my €1 find!
January 21, 2026
Top 3-
He Bids His Beloved Be at Peace,
Ephemera,
He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead
He Bids His Beloved Be at Peace,
Ephemera,
He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead
Read
April 1, 2011Loooove this book of poems. They feed my soul.
August 24, 2020
If you’re looking for early 20th century emo Irish poetry about unrequited love, boy, is this the collection for you!
Personal Favorite Poems from This Collection:
The Fish
The Heart of the Woman
The Poet Pleads with the Elemental Powers
He Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven
O Do Not Love Too Long
Personal Favorite Poems from This Collection:
The Fish
The Heart of the Woman
The Poet Pleads with the Elemental Powers
He Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven
O Do Not Love Too Long
February 1, 2018
A collection of Yeats's early love poems with flashes of his future brilliance. These poems came from Yeats's unrequited love for Maud Gonne. My favorites are When You Are Old, The Song of Wandering Aengus, and Down by the Salley Gardens. Included are incredibly good miniature etchings and wood engravings by two 19th-Century English landscape painters, Samuel Palmer and Edward Calvert, both of whom were influenced by William Blake.
October 20, 2014
A lovely little volume of 41 Yeats poems from his younger years. Most were kind of on the sullen side, but The Ragged Wood is one of my favourite poems ever. I read this with Matisse, reading alternate verses. It was a great experience.
December 9, 2014
This book is beautiful.The poems are often melancholy, but especially lovely read out loud, like "Never Give All the Heart". My favourite, though, is "The Ragged Wood".
October 12, 2021
This little book from St. Martin’s Press has a wonderful form factor and is from the series that included Browning’s “Sonnets from the Portuguese”. “A Poet to His Beloved” contains 41 selections from Yeats that concentrate on his early years and love poetry.
As Yeats had his share of heartbreak with love and rejection from Maud Gonne, a full spectrum is represented:
- The magical place that is true love in “The Indian to His Love”
- Adulation in “He Gives His Beloved Certain Rhymes” and “The Cap and Bells”
- The perceived uniqueness of a powerful love in “The Ragged Wood”, with its last line “No one has ever loved but you and I.”
- Impatience leading to ruin in “Down by the Sulley Gardens”
- The love that slipped away as illusory in “The Song of Wandering Aengus”
- Wanting another chance in “The Lover Tells of the Rose in His Heart”
- The acceptance of love lost in “Ephemera” and “Into the Twilight”
- Forgetting one’s troubles, brooding, and loneliness in “Who Goes With Fergus?”
- Never being able to forget in “The Lover Mourns for the Loss of Love”
- A plea to remembering fondly the one that loved you best in “When You Are Old”, and a promise to always find her beautiful despite aging in “The Lover Pleads with His Friend for Old Friends”.
This poetry is apparently thought to be less refined by critics, but for my part, the words rang true, brought emotion to the surface, and reminded me of the commonality of feelings in lovers from time immemorial – all signs of great art.
Favorites (other than “When You Are Old”, which I extracted elsewhere):
Who Goes With Fergus?
Who will go drive with Fergus now,
And pierce the deep wood’s woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
Young man, lift up your russet brow,
And lift your tender eyelids, maid,
And brood on hopes and fear no more.
And no more turn aside and brood
Upon love’s bitter mystery;
For Fergus rules the brazen cars,
And rules the shadows of the wood,
And the white breast of the dim sea
And all the dishevelled wandering stars.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
As Yeats had his share of heartbreak with love and rejection from Maud Gonne, a full spectrum is represented:
- The magical place that is true love in “The Indian to His Love”
- Adulation in “He Gives His Beloved Certain Rhymes” and “The Cap and Bells”
- The perceived uniqueness of a powerful love in “The Ragged Wood”, with its last line “No one has ever loved but you and I.”
- Impatience leading to ruin in “Down by the Sulley Gardens”
- The love that slipped away as illusory in “The Song of Wandering Aengus”
- Wanting another chance in “The Lover Tells of the Rose in His Heart”
- The acceptance of love lost in “Ephemera” and “Into the Twilight”
- Forgetting one’s troubles, brooding, and loneliness in “Who Goes With Fergus?”
- Never being able to forget in “The Lover Mourns for the Loss of Love”
- A plea to remembering fondly the one that loved you best in “When You Are Old”, and a promise to always find her beautiful despite aging in “The Lover Pleads with His Friend for Old Friends”.
This poetry is apparently thought to be less refined by critics, but for my part, the words rang true, brought emotion to the surface, and reminded me of the commonality of feelings in lovers from time immemorial – all signs of great art.
Favorites (other than “When You Are Old”, which I extracted elsewhere):
Who Goes With Fergus?
Who will go drive with Fergus now,
And pierce the deep wood’s woven shade,
And dance upon the level shore?
Young man, lift up your russet brow,
And lift your tender eyelids, maid,
And brood on hopes and fear no more.
And no more turn aside and brood
Upon love’s bitter mystery;
For Fergus rules the brazen cars,
And rules the shadows of the wood,
And the white breast of the dim sea
And all the dishevelled wandering stars.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
March 11, 2023
The poems in the beginning are some of the strongest in the collection ,but many are verbose and understandably dated. Certain language and themes are repetative towards the second half; there is an exhausting fixation on "hiding in hair" and "grayness" so much so that it is hard to appreciate the poems with these worn out phrases. There were also obscure and akward rhyme patterns in some of the poems, while others had cultural (possibly biblical) references that were lost on me.
Despite these criticisms, I enjoyed the collection more than I anticipated. I've never read a deconstruction of love quite like this. The collection inludes reflections on how relationships evolve and wane after several decades together - from several different points of view and at different times. Most poetry I come across focuses on the extremes of either abuse or a manic happily-ever-after. These poems include the gray emotions and experiences that I haven't seen reflected in media when it comes to love. This collection is unique in that it is a painfully transparent outpouring about how love truly is for some, realistically, over time. Yaeats reflects on the normal, sometimes eroding or boring nature of being with the same lover for a long time and how they grow tired of eachother- and how this can be forgiven whether they stay together or not. He reflects on having to stick up for your lover to the public, effortlessly loving your partner stronger than you did 30 years prior, and how to be mindful of how they change. Yeats even has a few lines secretly wishing his lover was dead. These poems include fresh, unique experiences with love in mind- from the surprise of finding a new beauty, magical thinking to transport your soul closer to whom you love, the comfort of connection, the wearieness of monotony, the rage of jealousy, new found appreciation and protectiveness of love, forgiveness, grief, and peace when love ends. It's definitely worth a read if you want something a little different while not sacrificing imagery.
Despite these criticisms, I enjoyed the collection more than I anticipated. I've never read a deconstruction of love quite like this. The collection inludes reflections on how relationships evolve and wane after several decades together - from several different points of view and at different times. Most poetry I come across focuses on the extremes of either abuse or a manic happily-ever-after. These poems include the gray emotions and experiences that I haven't seen reflected in media when it comes to love. This collection is unique in that it is a painfully transparent outpouring about how love truly is for some, realistically, over time. Yaeats reflects on the normal, sometimes eroding or boring nature of being with the same lover for a long time and how they grow tired of eachother- and how this can be forgiven whether they stay together or not. He reflects on having to stick up for your lover to the public, effortlessly loving your partner stronger than you did 30 years prior, and how to be mindful of how they change. Yeats even has a few lines secretly wishing his lover was dead. These poems include fresh, unique experiences with love in mind- from the surprise of finding a new beauty, magical thinking to transport your soul closer to whom you love, the comfort of connection, the wearieness of monotony, the rage of jealousy, new found appreciation and protectiveness of love, forgiveness, grief, and peace when love ends. It's definitely worth a read if you want something a little different while not sacrificing imagery.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 6, 2024
There's something downright stingy about Richard Eberhart's intro to this poetry collection. For reasons which elude me, he professes that only a person unfamiliar with Yeats' oeuvre could fully enjoy the verses herein. He couldn't be more wrong. Yeats' youthfully amorous poems -- which are often wistful and pensive as well as passionate and dramatic -- are beautiful to encounter even if -- like me -- you've spent time with Yeats' writings numerous times beforehand. Many lyrics spring from that passing place where "No one has ever loved but you and I." Yet it's that very exceptionalism that recalls the intensity that comes with one's first encounters with love. And so we get to learn of Yeats' obsessions: so much glorification of the hair! so much attention to the eyes! such longing to rest one's head upon the loved one's gentle breast! Personally, I'm all for it. I also relish St. Martin's Press' inclusion of black-and-white artworks by Edward Calvert and Samuel Palmer, two 19th-century printmakers inspired by William Blake who, like Yeats, understood the seductive power of rhyme.
March 31, 2021
I purchased this small, handsome bouquet of some of Yeats' earliest poems a couple of years ago, anticipating some point in the future that I might have a literate girlfriend to whom I might present it as a gift. There was no girlfriend, nor is there likely to be one anytime soon, if ever again, so I finally picked it up for my own pleasure; after all, my favorite of Yeats' poems, "A Song of the Wandering Aengus," is contained therein, and so it was with some eagerness I opened its pages.
Sadly, what I found was largely dull, predictable, even cringe-worthy. Aside from "Aengus," these are not the poems by which I regard Yeats as the giant he was, the poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature: these are not on the order of "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" or "The Second Coming." A good gift, perhaps, for a girl who's not so well-read, and maybe even a wise gift for a teenager to give to his sweetheart, assuming they are both sufficiently able to swoon.
Sadly, what I found was largely dull, predictable, even cringe-worthy. Aside from "Aengus," these are not the poems by which I regard Yeats as the giant he was, the poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature: these are not on the order of "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" or "The Second Coming." A good gift, perhaps, for a girl who's not so well-read, and maybe even a wise gift for a teenager to give to his sweetheart, assuming they are both sufficiently able to swoon.
July 29, 2019
I know Maud Gonne rejected Yeats repeatedly but at some point she had to have thought “man this guy’s got game.”
Some poems that spoke to more strongly or stood out as highlights were:
The White Birds
The Lover Tells of the Rose in his Heart
The Fish
The Song of Wandering Aengus
The Heart of a Woman
He Bids his Beloved be at Peace
He Remembers Forgotten Beauty
The Cap and Bells
He Tells of the Perfect Beauty
He Hears the Cry of the Sedge
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Yeats highlights beautifully the highs of young love and the bitterness and frustration of being rejected, as well as his love for his country of Ireland and the dream of what his country could be, and the balance between reality and pursuing one’s dreams. This is an excellent selection of his early work.
Some poems that spoke to more strongly or stood out as highlights were:
The White Birds
The Lover Tells of the Rose in his Heart
The Fish
The Song of Wandering Aengus
The Heart of a Woman
He Bids his Beloved be at Peace
He Remembers Forgotten Beauty
The Cap and Bells
He Tells of the Perfect Beauty
He Hears the Cry of the Sedge
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Yeats highlights beautifully the highs of young love and the bitterness and frustration of being rejected, as well as his love for his country of Ireland and the dream of what his country could be, and the balance between reality and pursuing one’s dreams. This is an excellent selection of his early work.
December 22, 2018
I'm not a big fan of poetry but thought I'd give Yeats a try, especially since I was in Ireland when I bought this book. Overall, I really liked this collection. I appreciated that the selected poems fell within a particular theme and I thought some of them were quite poignant. I liked that the earlier poems were more hopeful and enchanted, whereas the later ones had a bit of bitterness to them.
June 6, 2021
lovely collection. nothing super memorable, bit repetitive at times, but yeats really has a way with language. i love his lyrical, dream-like writing, gorgeous imagery and clever rhymes. my favorite pieces were “down by the salley gardens,” “he tells of the perfect beauty,” “the lover pleads with his friend for old friends,” “never give all the heart” and “adam’s curse.”
May 22, 2023
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
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September 23, 2025A pleasant little hard-bound book of W.B. Yeats early love poems edited by Richard Eberhart. Yeats's love of the natural world weaves intricately into his love poems for a woman, making human love and love of the natural world inseparable.
December 2, 2018
Yeats' early poems.
My limitation-- I just could not appreciate them.
My limitation-- I just could not appreciate them.
June 4, 2019
When I am old and Grey, I will still take down this book to read.
November 10, 2020
Fav:
Down by the sally gardens, when you are old
Down by the sally gardens, when you are old
December 22, 2021
My favorites are when you are old, the song of wandering aengus, and o do not love too long
December 30, 2021
Not really my type of poetry, but I liked " Into the Twilight" and a couple others. Yeats mentions hair a lot.
December 2, 2022
yeats loooveeesss a good leaf metaphor!! very passionate and dreamy and a wonderful intro to yeats for anyone looking
December 20, 2023
Really great stuff from an up and comer! Sometimes, its real cheese fluff and other times they're really some of the most beautiful love poems.
July 13, 2025
Read this the week of my wedding and it was simply perfect.
July 31, 2025
Poems I liked:
The Falling of the Leaves
The Rose of the World
When You Are Old
He Remembers Forgotten Beauty
The Falling of the Leaves
The Rose of the World
When You Are Old
He Remembers Forgotten Beauty
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August 24, 2025“
จากใจตะใคร่รื้น เกาะกิน
สนิมเกรอะกรัง คราบหยาดน้ำตา
จมจ่อมในเวิ้งของตายอยาก
แสนนานในโศกา สุดรั้นพรรณนา
”
จากใจตะใคร่รื้น เกาะกิน
สนิมเกรอะกรัง คราบหยาดน้ำตา
จมจ่อมในเวิ้งของตายอยาก
แสนนานในโศกา สุดรั้นพรรณนา
”
September 1, 2025
Man, I’ve missed Romanticism. Also didn’t realize it was an unrequited love so not as flowery of poetry but I enjoyed!
December 24, 2025
4.5 His poetry is just plain magical, evocative, atmospheric and deeply emotional.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews