"Easter 1916" and Other Poems

William Butler Yeats

apr, 2012 · Courier Corporation

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"A terrible beauty is born," observed the greatest modern Irish poet after his country's 1916 Easter Rebellion against the British. This streak of proud nationalism, interwoven with elements of Celtic lore and mysticism, and infused with a hard-earned wisdom, makes Yeats's works resonate to this day. His career spanned five decades, earning him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923, and he is widely regarded as the finest English-language poet of the twentieth century.
This volume contains a rich selection of poems from Yeat's mature work, including all the poems from The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) and Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921). These memorable verses, embodying subtlety and objectivity in language of stark beauty and simplicity, offer a cross-section of Yeat's multifaceted poetic production.
In addition to the famous title poem, the works collected here include the oft-quoted "The Second Coming" as well as "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death," "The Wild Swans at Coole," "In Memory of Major Robert Gregory," "Under the Round Tower," "Michael Robartes and the Dancer," "The Rose Tree," "A Prayer for My Daughter," "A Meditation in Time of War," and many more.

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William Butler Yeats was born on June 13, 1865 in Dublin. He was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, and others, founded the Abbey Theatre, where he served as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irishman so honoured for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation. 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 and The Winding Stair and Other Poems. In 1885, the Dublin University Review published Yeats's first poems, as well as an essay entitled "The Poetry of Sir Samuel Ferguson. Between 1884 and 1886, William attended the Metropolitan School of Art now the National College of Art and Design in Thomas Street. His first known works were written when he was seventeen, and included a poem heavily influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley that describes a magician who set up a throne in central Asia. Although Yeats's early works drew heavily on Shelley and Edmund Spenser, he soon turned to Irish mythology and folklore and the writings of William Blake. In later life, Yeats paid tribute to Blake by describing him as one of the "great artificers of God who uttered great truths to a little clan". In 1890, Yeats co-founded the Rhymers' Club with Ernest Rhys, a group of London-based poets who met regularly in a Fleet Street tavern to recite their verse. They later became known as the "Tragic Generation" and published two anthologies, the first one in 1892 and the second one in 1894. He collaborated with Edwin Ellis on the first complete edition of William Blake's works, in the process rediscovering a forgotten poem, "Vala, or, the Four Zoas". Yeats was an Irish Nationalist at heart, looking for the kind of traditional lifestyle displayed through poems such as 'The Fisherman'. However, as his life progressed, he sheltered much of his revolutionary spirit and distanced himself from the intense political landscape until 1922, when he was appointed Senator for the Irish Free State.