Selected Poems

by W. B. Yeats

Published 29 October 1992
This selection of Yeats' poetry contains forty poems, spanning his early and mature works including choices from Responsibilities, The Wild Swans at Coole, The Tower, and New Poems. This edition has comprehensive notes on the poems and an Approaches section, offering commentary and activities on key themes and techniques within the poetry, such as Yeats' view of Ireland and his use of myth and symbolism.

W.B. Yeats: Selected Poems

by W. B. Yeats

Published 5 October 1995
"Bloomsbury Poetry Classics" are selections from the work of some of our greatest poets. The series is aimed at the general reader rather than the specialist and carries no critical or explanatory apparatus. This can be found elsewhere. In the series the poems introduce themselves, on an uncluttered page and in a format that is both attractive and convenient. The selections have been made by the distinguished poet, critic and biographer Ian Hamilton. W.B. Yeats was born in Ireland in 1865 to a Protestant family, at a time when patriotism was very bound up in Roman Catholicism. His father was an eminent painter. Yeats spent a large part of his childhood in Ireland and much of his poetry gains inspiration from the wild and beautiful countryside. His career divided into four distinct phases, during which time he also wrote plays and became involved with the Irish National Theatre.