Selected Poems / W. B. Yeats.

Selected Poems: The Song of the Happy Shepherd — Down by the Salley Gardens — The Meditation of the Old Fisherman — Cuchulain's Fight with the Sea — When You Are Old — The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner — He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven — Never Give All the Heart — Adam's Curse — The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water — Words — Peace — The Fascination of What's Difficult — Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation — These Are the Clouds — At Galway Races — All Things Can Tempt Me — To a Wealthy Man Who Promised a Second Subscription to the Dublin Municipal Gallery if it Were Proved the People Wanted Pictures September 1913 — Fallen Majesty — Friends — That the Night Come — A Coat — While I, from That Reed-throated Whisperer... — In Memory of Major Robert Gregory — An Irish Airman Foresees His Death — To a Young Beauty — The Scholars — Her Praise — Broken Dreams — Ego Dominus Tuus — Easter, 1916 — Sixteen Dead Men — The Rose Tree — On a Political Prisoner — The Second Coming — A Prayer for my Daughter — Sailing to Byzantium — The Tower — Meditations in Time of Civil War.

The present selection traces the development of Yeats's verse, encompassing the poet's interest in Irish folklore and national identity, his engagement with the political situation of his day and the rich symbolism that is the hallmark of his work and a reflection of his lifelong fascination with the occult. It contains some of his best-known pieces, including the elegiac 'Easter 1916', the apocalyptic 'The Second Coming' and the reflective and spiritual 'Sailing to Byzantium'.

Often radical in content but always traditional in form, these poems are by turns startling and affecting, and never less than inspired. Taken together, they form an ideal introduction to the poetic career of one of Ireland's greatest literary figures.

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