In Collected Poems Augustine Martin has compiled an extensive piece of Irish Literary history. Not only does this capture the young romantic poet, before his more political voice matures, in the collection from Crossways(1889) and The Rose(1893) but also his finest piece of works in The Wild Swans at Coole(1919)and Michael Robarts and the Dancer(1921). The latter two collections are worth the £8.99 alone in terms of quality and social history.
I do not wish to negate his earlier pieces of work but unfortunately they capture the period in which he borrowed heavily from the mysticism and verbal intrigue of William Blake's work, as well as from Doone. His earlier pieces have highlights, such as the Isle of Innisfree but in no way classify Yeats as a writer of his time. Each of his works are in comparison with later writers such as Betjeman, in as much that they both are immensely skilled in using the most simplest forms of poetics, rhyme and imagery, to place what could be described as an almost metaphysical timebomb in the reader's mind. This may overstate what I have earlier stated and would plead with anyone to read 'when you are old' as a classic example of his earlier work. This reflects what can be seen as his interior work, where he deals with his own primary feelings - namely love.
Love will always be central to Yeats work, whether it is via youthful innouous or elderly fragility, 'Politics' is the classic example that continues the final enigma within the structures of (his) contemporary social, personal and political psyche. But to catch the zeitghiest that is sown within Yeats the 'Nationalist' or Yeats the cynic is best examined within 'Easter 1916', a poem that does not question the 'Great War' but asks fundemenatally when does a hero turn out to be the ultimate in villain when he asked to fight on the pretence of freedoms. Yet only to see this shot down by the British police/ black and tans etc in the period of the Easter uprising of 1916.
In some ways he could be seen as a deconstructionalist in that his work never initiates the reader to view what is not on the page, but this is a tenous argument, by myself not by Yeats. His only weakness throughout his life was his proclivity to emulate Tennyson/Carol in epic poems of mystical intent that never really carried his voice or any intimate feeling.
Basically his work is very natural and simple and this can also be seen in the work of Seamus Heaney.
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