The Major Works

The Major Works

This volume represents the full range of W.B. Yeats' achievement, from the Romantic early work to his last poems. The anthology also contains critical essays, occult writings, political speeches, autobiographical writings, and a selection of his letters.

This authoritative edition was first published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Yeats's poetry and prose - all the major poems, complemented by plays, critical writings, and letters - to give the essence of his work and thinking. W. B. Yeats was born in 1865, only 38 years after the death of William Blake, and died in 1939, the contemporary of Ezra Pound and James Joyce. His career crossed two centuries, and this volume represents the full range of his achievement, from the Romantic early poems of Crossways and the symbolist masterpiece The Wind Among the Reeds to his last poems. Myth and folk-tale influence both his poems and his plays, represented here by Cathleen ni Houlihan and Deirdre among others. The importance of the spirit world to his life and work is evident in his critical essays and occult writings, and the anthology also contains political speeches, autobiographical writings, and a selection of his letters. This one-volume collection of poems and prose offers a unique perspective on the connectedness of Yeats's literary output, showing how his aesthetic, spiritual, and political development was reflected in everything he wrote.

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William Butler Yeats wurde am 13. Juni 1865 im irischen Sandymount bei Dublin geboren. Yeats studierte erst Kunst bevor er sich ab 1880 der Literatur zuwandte. Er lernte Oscar Wilde kennen und setzte sich sehr für die englischsprachige irische Literatur ein. William Butler Yeats gründete mit der Unterstützung von Lady Gregory 1899 das Abbey Theatres in Dublin, das spätere irische Nationaltheater und schrieb zahlreiche Stücke für sein Theater. Yeats schrieb Prosa, Lyrik, Dramen und Essays. 1923 wurde ihm der Nobelpreis für Literatur verliehen. Am 28. Januar 1939 starb William Butler Yeats in Roquebrune-Cape-Martin, in der Nähe von Nizza.