The first edition of W. B. Yeats's "The Tower" appeared in bookstores in London on Valentine's Day, 1928. His English publisher printed just 2,000 copies of this slender volume of twenty-one poems, priced at six shillings. The book was immediately embraced by book buyers and critics alike, and it quickly became a bestseller.
Subsequent versions of the volume made various changes throughout, but this Scribner facsimile edition reproduces exactly that seminal first edition as it reached its earliest audience in 1928, adding an introduction and notes by esteemed Yeats scholar Richard J. Finneran.
Written between 1912 and 1927, these poems ("Sailing to Byzantium," "Leda and the Swan," and "Among School Children" among them) are today considered some of the best and most famous in the entire Yeats canon. As Virginia Woolf declared in her unsigned review of this collection, "Mr. Yeats has never written more exactly and more passionately."

W. B. Yeats's "The Winding Stair and Other Poems "was published in 1933 when Yeats was sixty-eight, ten years after he won the Nobel Prize and six years before his death in 1939. Yeats famously invoked in "Adam's Curse" the time he spent "stitching and unstitching" the lines of his work, but he also spent considerable time stitching and unstitching his poems to each other. "The Winding Stair "demonstrates that care, combining and reordering the poems of two earlier publications in an edition intended as the companion volume to "The Tower," published in 1928.
This Scribner facsimile edition reproduces exactly the pages of the elegantly planned and designed first edition of "The Winding Stair and Other Poems "as it first appeared, including a photo of the cover design on which Yeats collaborated. It adds an introduction and notes by celebrated Yeats scholar George Bornstein.
Yeats's longest separate volume of verse, it features sixty-four poems written in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Among them are such masterpieces as "Blood and the Moon," "Byzantium," the Coole Park poems, "Vacillation," and two separately titled long sequences ending with the exquisite lyric "From the 'Antigone.'" These poems amply justify T. S. Eliot's contention that Yeats was one of the few poets "whose history is the history of their own time, who are a part of the consciousness of an age which cannot be understood without them."

Since its first appearance in 1962, M. L. Rosenthal's classic selection of Yeats's poems and plays has attracted hundreds of thousands of readers. This newly revised edition includes 211 poems and 4 plays. It adds The Words Upon the Window-Pane, one of Yeats's most startling dramatic works in its realistic use of a seance as the setting for an eerily powerful reenactment of Jonathan Swift's rigorous idealism, baffling love relationships, and tragic madness. The collection profits from recent scholarship that has helped to establish Yeats's most reliable texts, in the order set by the poet himself. And his powerful lyrical sequences are amply represented, culminating in the selection from Last Poems and Two Plays, which reaches its climax in the brilliant poetic plays The Death of Cuchulain and Purgatory.

Scholars, students, and all who delight in Yeats's varied music and sheer quality will rejoice in this expanded edition. As the introduction observes, "Early and late he has the simple, indispensable gift of enchanting the ear....He was also the poet who, while very much of his own day in Ireland, spoke best to the people of all countries. And though he plunged deep into arcane studies, his themes are most clearly the general ones of life and death, love and hate, man's condition, and history's meanings. He began as a sometimes effete post-Romantic, heir to the pre-Raphaelites, and then, quite naturally, became a leading British Symbolist; but he grew at last into the boldest, most vigorous voice of this century." Selected Poems and Four Plays represents the essential achievement of the greatest twentieth-century poet to write in English.

With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. W. B. Yeats was Romantic and Modernist, mystical dreamer and leader of the Irish Literary Revival, Nobel prizewinner, dramatist and, above all, poet. He began writing with the intention of putting his 'very self' into his poems. T. S. Eliot, one of many who proclaimed the Irishman's greatness, described him as 'one of those few whose history is the history of their own time, who are part of the consciousness of an age which cannot be understood without them'. For anyone interested in the literature of the late nineteenth century and the twentieth century, Yeats's work is essential. This volume gathers the full range of his published poetry, from the hauntingly beautiful early lyrics (by which he is still fondly remembered) to the magnificent later poems which put beyond question his status as major poet of modern times. Paradoxical, proud and passionate, Yeats speaks today as eloquently as ever.

The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats includes all of the poems authorized by Yeats for inclusion in his standard canon. Breathtaking in range, it encompasses the entire arc of his career, from luminous reworkings of ancient Irish myths and legends to passionate meditations on the demands and rewards of youth and old age, from exquisite, occasionally whimsical songs of love, nature, and art to somber and angry poems of life in a nation torn by war and uprising. In observing the development of rich and recurring images and themes over the course of his body of work, we can trace the quest of this century's greatest poet to unite intellect and artistry in a single magnificent vision.

Revised and corrected, this edition includes Yeats's own notes on his poetry, complemented by explanatory notes from esteemed Yeats scholar Richard J. Finneran. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats is the most comprehensive edition of one of the world's most beloved poets available in paperback.

"Criticism" includes twenty-four interpretive essays by T. S. Eliot, Daniel Albright, Douglas Archibald, Harold Bloom, George Bornstein, Elizabeth Cullingford, Paul de Man, Richard Ellman, R. F. Foster, Stephen Gwynn, Seamus Heaney, Marjorie Howes, John Kelly, Declan Kiberd, Lucy McDiarmid, Michael North, Thomas Parkinson, Marjorie Perloff, James Pethica, Jahan Ramazani, Ronald Schuchard, Michael J. Sidnell, Anita Sokolsky, and Helen Vendler. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.

Gathered by the renowned Irish poet, playwright, and essayist William Butler Yeats, the sixty-five tales and poems in this delightful collection uniquely capture the rich heritage of the Celtic imagination. Filled with legends of village ghosts, fairies, demons, witches, priests, and saints, these stories evoke both tender pathos and lighthearted mirth and embody what Yeats describes as “the very voice of the people, the very pulse of life.”

“The impact of these tales doesn’t stop with Yeats, or Joyce, or Oscar Wilde,” writes Paul Muldoon in his Foreword, “for generations of readers in Ireland and throughout the world have found them flourishing like those persistent fairy thorns.”

The Wind Among the Reeds (1899) is a collection of poems and plays by W.B. Yeats. Containing many of the poet's early important works, The Wind Among the Reeds provides a rich sampling of Yeats' poems, illuminating his influence on the Celtic Twilight, a late-nineteenth century movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland, while charting his developing sense of the poet's place in history and a changing world. "The Song of Wandering Aengus" dramatizes aesthetic and romantic longing. The poem follows a man with "a fire...in [his] head" who peels "a hazel wand," hooks it with a berry, and catches himself "a little silver trout." Satisfied, he returns home to light a fire and cook himself a meal of fresh fish when, suddenly, the trout transforms into "a glimmering girl / With apple blossom in her hair." Haunted by her beauty, Aengus wanders the "hollow lands and hilly lands" in search of the girl, leaving his home and forsaking the promise of hard-earned comfort for the hope and hunger of vision . "The Song of the Old Mother," a deceptively simple lyric reminiscent of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, is a brief meditation on the life of an elderly domestic worker. Rising at dawn, she ensures that "the seed of the fire flicker and glow," preparing the home for the day ahead while "the young lie long and dream in their bed" with no sense of the nature of work. The Wind Among the Reeds, Yeats' third collection of poems, introduces some of the poet's most enduring characters and personas, including Michael Robartes and Red Hanrahan, who dramatize for poet and reader the moods and minds which move a creative spirit. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's The Wind Among the Reeds is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Ideas of Good and Evil (1903) is a collection of wide-ranging essays by Irish poet W.B. Yeats. Writing on such subjects as the art of poetry, politics, and the occult, Yeats proves himself to be not only a master of verse and drama, but an immensely talented essayist and thorough scholar. "What is 'Popular Poetry'?" reflects on a changing Irish literary landscape which has, over the course of Yeats' career, established its own place in world literature apart from, and perhaps surpassing, its English counterpart. Juxtaposing "the poetry of the coteries, which presupposes the written tradition" and "the true poetry of the people, which presupposes the unwritten tradition," Yeats argues that the spirit of Irish poetry depends on its unfaltering connection to the itinerant bards and storytellers whose gift for musicality and memory kept language alive for a widely illiterate people. In "Magic," Yeats, a longtime member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, discusses his belief in the occult. Musing on the power of symbol to evoke memories, as well as the revelation of his past lives, Yeats provides personal anecdotes and secondhand accounts of magical occurrences and experiences, exposing a world secrets and hidden meaning for believers and the uninitiated alike. "The Philosophy of Shelley's Poetry" is an academic essay in which Yeats argues that Shelley's poems far surpass the radical ideologies of such figures as William Godwin. Ideas of Good and Evil showcases the diverse intellectual and spiritual interests of W.B. Yeats, an icon of Irish literature and one of the twentieth century's leading poetic voices. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's Ideas of Good and Evil is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Celtic Twilight (1893) is a collection of stories written and edited by W.B. Yeats. Compiled at the height of the Celtic Twilight, a movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland, The Celtic Twilight captures a wide range of stories, songs, poems, and firsthand accounts from artists and storytellers dedicated to the preservation of Irish culture. In "Belief and Unbelief," a story is shared about a village at the foot of Ben Bulben. One day, a young girl disappears while walking through a local field. Fearful that the faeries have gotten her, the townspeople conduct a search of the village, checking every home while burning ragweed and reciting spells to ward off the mischievous spirits. "Mortal Help" discusses the interdependence of humans and faeries, who require the presence of the living in order to play games in the physical world. As evidence, an old ditch digger tells a story from his youth, when he witnessed a group of faeries playing the game of hurling not far from the field where he was working. In "A Knight of the Sheep," an old farmer faces off with the local tax collector, and both struggle to maintain respect for one another while trading shrewdly concealed insults. "The Devil" discusses several demonic sightings among Irish peasants, who claim to have met Lucifer by the side of the road by day and under the bed at night. The Celtic Twilight captures the collision of ancient and modern Ireland, preserving its legends while ensuring their mystery remains. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's The Celtic Twilight is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Rooted in myth, occult mysteries, and belief in magic, these stories are populated by a lively cast of sorcerers, fairies, ghosts, and nature spirits. The great Irish poet heard these enchanting, mystical tales from Irish peasants, and the stories' anthropologic significance is matched by their timeless entertainment value.

"The Collected Works of W. B. Yeats, Volume XIII: A Vision" is part of a fourteen-volume series under the general editorship of eminent Yeats scholar George Bornstein and formerly the late Richard J. Finneran and George Mills Harper. One of the strangest works of literary modernism, "A Vision" is Yeats's greatest occult work.
Edited by Yeats scholars Catherine E. Paul and Margaret Mills Harper, the volume presents the "system" of philosophy, psychology, history, and the life of the soul that Yeats and his wife George (nee Hyde Lees) received and created by means of mediumistic experiments from 1917 through the early 1920s. Yeats obsessively revised the book, and the revised 1937 version is much more widely available than its predecessor. The original 1925 version of "A Vision," poetic, unpolished, masked in fiction, and close to the excitement of the automatic writing that the Yeatses believed to be its supernatural origin, is presented here in a scholarly edition for the first time.
The text, minimally corrected to retain the sense of the original, is extensively annotated, with particular attention paid to the relationship between the published book and its complex genetic materials. Indispensable to an understanding of the poet's late work and entrancing on its own merit, "A Vision" aims to be, all at once, a work of theoretical history, an esoteric philosophy, an aesthetic symbology, a psychological schema, and a sacred book. It is as difficult as it is essential reading for any student of Yeats.

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) is a collection of stories edited by W.B. Yeats. Compiled at the height of the Celtic Twilight, a movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry captures a wide range of stories, songs, poems, and firsthand accounts from artists and storytellers dedicated to the preservation of Irish culture. In "Frank Martin and the Fairies," a sickly man discusses the presence of dozens of fairies inside his weaving shop. When a child in his village falls ill, he claims to have seen the fairies building a small, simple coffin, preparing to convey the poor youth from the world of men to their own, shadowy realm. "Bewitched Butter," a tale from Donegal, recounts a strange event involving two farming families and a prized Kerry cow. When the young Grace Dogherty arrives on the Hanlon's doorstep asking to milk their cow, Mrs. Hanlon initially refuses her. But after several entreaties, the matriarch relents, allowing the girl to take some of the Kerry cow's milk. When Moiley stops producing milk, the Hanlon's fear that Grace has cast an evil eye on the cow, thereby threatening their livelihood. Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry compiles numerous tales of giants, gods, devils, kings and heroes, preserving the legends of Ireland's past, an age threatened with erasure by science, reason, and modern industrialization. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Ideas of Good and Evil (1903) is a collection of wide-ranging essays by Irish poet W.B. Yeats. Writing on such subjects as the art of poetry, politics, and the occult, Yeats proves himself to be not only a master of verse and drama, but an immensely talented essayist and thorough scholar. "What is 'Popular Poetry'?" reflects on a changing Irish literary landscape which has, over the course of Yeats' career, established its own place in world literature apart from, and perhaps surpassing, its English counterpart. Juxtaposing "the poetry of the coteries, which presupposes the written tradition" and "the true poetry of the people, which presupposes the unwritten tradition," Yeats argues that the spirit of Irish poetry depends on its unfaltering connection to the itinerant bards and storytellers whose gift for musicality and memory kept language alive for a widely illiterate people. In "Magic," Yeats, a longtime member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, discusses his belief in the occult. Musing on the power of symbol to evoke memories, as well as the revelation of his past lives, Yeats provides personal anecdotes and secondhand accounts of magical occurrences and experiences, exposing a world secrets and hidden meaning for believers and the uninitiated alike. "The Philosophy of Shelley's Poetry" is an academic essay in which Yeats argues that Shelley's poems far surpass the radical ideologies of such figures as William Godwin. Ideas of Good and Evil showcases the diverse intellectual and spiritual interests of W.B. Yeats, an icon of Irish literature and one of the twentieth century's leading poetic voices. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's Ideas of Good and Evil is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) is a collection of stories edited by W.B. Yeats. Compiled at the height of the Celtic Twilight, a movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry captures a wide range of stories, songs, poems, and firsthand accounts from artists and storytellers dedicated to the preservation of Irish culture. In "Frank Martin and the Fairies," a sickly man discusses the presence of dozens of fairies inside his weaving shop. When a child in his village falls ill, he claims to have seen the fairies building a small, simple coffin, preparing to convey the poor youth from the world of men to their own, shadowy realm. "Bewitched Butter," a tale from Donegal, recounts a strange event involving two farming families and a prized Kerry cow. When the young Grace Dogherty arrives on the Hanlon's doorstep asking to milk their cow, Mrs. Hanlon initially refuses her. But after several entreaties, the matriarch relents, allowing the girl to take some of the Kerry cow's milk. When Moiley stops producing milk, the Hanlon's fear that Grace has cast an evil eye on the cow, thereby threatening their livelihood. Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry compiles numerous tales of giants, gods, devils, kings and heroes, preserving the legends of Ireland's past, an age threatened with erasure by science, reason, and modern industrialization. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Celtic Twilight (1893) is a collection of stories written and edited by W.B. Yeats. Compiled at the height of the Celtic Twilight, a movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland, The Celtic Twilight captures a wide range of stories, songs, poems, and firsthand accounts from artists and storytellers dedicated to the preservation of Irish culture. In "Belief and Unbelief," a story is shared about a village at the foot of Ben Bulben. One day, a young girl disappears while walking through a local field. Fearful that the faeries have gotten her, the townspeople conduct a search of the village, checking every home while burning ragweed and reciting spells to ward off the mischievous spirits. "Mortal Help" discusses the interdependence of humans and faeries, who require the presence of the living in order to play games in the physical world. As evidence, an old ditch digger tells a story from his youth, when he witnessed a group of faeries playing the game of hurling not far from the field where he was working. In "A Knight of the Sheep," an old farmer faces off with the local tax collector, and both struggle to maintain respect for one another while trading shrewdly concealed insults. "The Devil" discusses several demonic sightings among Irish peasants, who claim to have met Lucifer by the side of the road by day and under the bed at night. The Celtic Twilight captures the collision of ancient and modern Ireland, preserving its legends while ensuring their mystery remains. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's The Celtic Twilight is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Poems (1920) is a collection of poems and plays by W.B. Yeats. Containing many of the poet's early important works, Poems illuminates Yeats' influence on the Celtic Twilight, a late-nineteenth century movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland. The collection opens with Yeats' verse drama The Countess Cathleen, which he dedicated to the actress and revolutionary Maud Gonne. Set during a period of famine in Ireland, The Countess Cathleen tells the story of a wealthy landowning Countess who sells her soul to the devil in order to save her starving tenants. The Land of Heart's Desire, Yeats' first professionally performed play, follows a young fairy child who disrupts the lives of two newlyweds and shakes a simple village to its core. The Rose contains some of the writer's most beloved early poems, including "To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time"-a symbolist lyric alluding to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn-and "Fergus and the Druid," a dialogue in verse. In "Who Goes With Fergus," a poem blending ancient legend with modern Irish nationalism, Yeats asks the youth of his country to "brood on hopes and fears no more," to follow Fergus who "rules the shadows of the wood, / And the white breast of the dim sea / And all disheveled wandering stars." Yeats' writing, mysterious and rich with symbolism, demonstrates not just a mastery of the English language, but an abiding faith in the cause and principles of Irish independence. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's Poems is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Born and educated in Dublin, Ireland, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) discovered early in his literary career a fascination with Irish folklore and the occult. Later awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, Yeats produced a vast collection of stories, songs, and poetry of Ireland's historical and legendary past. "The Celtic Twilight" includes forty-two Celtic folklore tales, and Yeats makes no secret of his fascination and even belief in the world of the occult and the existence of faeries. Yeats' passion in these tales comes forth through the pages and adds a new dimension to these age-old tales. Though the stories are short in length, there is no scarcity of depth.