Reader Reviews for Collected poems of W.B. Yeats:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: An Extensive Survey of Yeats' Career
Comment: I have yet to read through the entire book, but then again this is not the kind of book you sit down with and read page after page in order. You can, but don't have to. I have best enjoyed this book by pulling it off the shelf from time to time and reading a poem or two, mulling them over, then returning the book to the shelf. Collected works of poetry can start to bleed together when I read too many individual poems in one sitting, and the beauty of a work like this is that I can keep coming back to it and find new poetry. It's a thick, beautiful book that should be on the shelf of anyone who enjoys poetry or even for someone starting to get interested in Yeats (such as myself when I bought it). This volume will last you a long time and keep you coming back for more every time you open it up.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Poor formatting on Kindle
Comment: + 5 stars for content
- Formatting on Kindle is not good
When viewing last page of poem, the title of next poem is seen on bottom of Kindle page in large bold print.
I find this distracting
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the Best English Poets in an Inexpensive, Complete Edition
Comment: W. B. Yeats enjoyed a long, successful, and productive poetic career lasting from the late Victorian era through 1939. More notably, besides Thomas Hardy and in great contrast to, say, William Wordsworth and Alfred Tennyson, he is probably the only English poet who not only continued to write up until his death but also produced some of his best work in later years. Many, including me, indeed think his last work his best. He wrote some of the most famous poems of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is certainly one of the greatest poets of the latter. His long career, coupled with the many personal, philosophical, political, and other changes he went through, ensured that his work can be conveniently divided into three distinct eras. The first has a self-consciously ornate style heavily influenced by Romanticism and pre-Raphaelite imagery. Some of his earliest works have cosmopolitan subjects, but most of the first era is concerned with Irish folklore and mythology. Yeats had a deep abiding interest in this material and is one of its most articulate and memorable exponents, playing a large role in its becoming an important part of Western culture. His second period is often described as being influenced by younger Modernist poets, but I see little connection between his work and theirs, particularly as he remained wed to traditional forms. However, it is certain that his work underwent a major change. Most obviously, he became more concise, turning exclusively to short, mostly lyrical works at once more direct and more allusive than early writings. These poems have great beauty that can be appreciated on a very simple level but also reveal complex meanings on close study. His subjects also branched out, notably including several great political works, though he retained a strong Irish focus. Yeats' third period may almost be seen as a mix of the first two. He returned to some early subject matter, but the style was more like the second era's. More importantly, his work became more and more personal, even at times confessional - as well as more explicitly sexual, very interesting considering his old age. This shows itself not least in the mystical thought that came to dominate his last few decades. He had always been interested the occult, but many of his poems just before and after his 1925 non-fiction work A Vision are heavily colored by what might almost be called a self-created mythology. Some deride this, finding it intellectually shallow or even simply crackpot, but it certainly led to many interesting and important poems and set him apart.
A collected edition is thus ideal for many reasons, his consistent excellence being most obvious. Perhaps no poet is more suited to being read in full, because it brings out several elements that would be overlooked, or even missed altogether, by reading Yeats sporadically. First, despite his three widely different periods, he always focused intensely on a small number of themes, love and Ireland being primary. Second and relatedly, unlike many poets, he is notable for constantly returning to a handful of metaphors - rose, gyre, tower, etc. -, constantly refining and expanding their meaning. It is fascinating to see how his use and understanding of these symbols developed and how their various uses play off each other.
There are several widely available collected editions that differ more in presentation than content. This features all the poems Yeats authorized, painstakingly edited to ensure accuracy - nearly four hundred in all over about 450 pages including the short closet drama The Shadowy Waters. As this suggests, Yeats was not especially prolific for someone with such a long career, but he was a consummate craftsman. The poems are laid out chronologically, following the order Yeats set out in his 1933 collected works plus later additions. We thus basically get every Yeats poem just as he wanted them to be read. It is an extremely valuable collection - a veritable goldmine for anyone who loves great poetry, Irish history and culture, or simply great literature period.
Whether this particular collected edition is ideal depends on what is needed. It includes many pages of notes with basic information about allusions and historical references. Anyone wanting to know only what one must be aware of to understand the poems will find them invaluable. On the other hand, anyone wanting detailed criticism or biographical exposition will be disappointed, especially as there is no scholarly introduction or biographical sketch. However, even some of the former may be annoyed by the format. The information is given as endnotes without identifying marks in the text. This is great for those without need for notes, as no marks or footnotes clog the page. Conversely, it is extremely frustrating to those who want them, as they must constantly flip to the back without knowing when there is a note. The notes also point out things that are extremely obvious to many people - e.g., "Jesus Christ is Son of God in the Christian religion" -, but the editor justifies this by saying Yeats has a worldwide audience, and what is obvious to some is not obvious to all. This is true but will hardly lessen annoyance for many. The editor also elects to repeat information rather than cross-referencing, which will also likely invoke ambivalent reactions. There are two appendices: Yeats' notes to his collected poems up to 1933, with further editorial notes, and musical notation for some of his poems that had been scored. The latter is mostly superfluous, the former extremely valuable. There are also indices by title and first line. Finally, it is easy to object to the book's division into "Lyric" and "Dramatic and Narrative," the latter with only about a dozen entries. It disrupts chronology and is also somewhat arbitrary; several poems in each section arguably belong in the other, and only one in the latter is significantly longer than those in the former. That said, this was Yeats' own system.
All told, this is an excellent edition for anyone wanting Yeats' poems in one book in a portable, readable, inexpensive format. Font size is ample, making for easy reading and giving plenty of room for annotations. Line numbers are also included. These are luxuries usually only available in expensive editions and greatly appreciated. On the negative side, the binding is quite cheap, and one must be somewhat careful with the book if it is to last through multiple readings over years. However, this is a small complaint for such a low-priced, inclusive edition. Those seeking higher quality paper can easily find a more expensive edition to suit them, but the content itself cannot be bettered, and the value is almost unbelievable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book of the great man
Comment: I highly recommend anybody interested in poetry to purchase this edition. Complete yet cheap it gives you a whole image of Yeats poet, starting from "The Rose" and "The Wild Swans of Coole" to his Last Poems of 38-39. The developement or rather evolution of his genious covers such a wide range that it would have been enough for some 10 fine poets. If you know his early poems, you don't know Yeats. If you know his late poems you do not know him either. He is a Proteus, and you need to get aquointed with as many disguises of him as you can.
I must mention, that the explanatory notes are not sufficient to my taste.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great reader's copy of the complete canon; not an art piece of bookmaking, but a book to be read
Comment: This review refers to Finneran's Revised Second Edition (paperback) 8x5x1.25 inches in size.
Much mention made here of the quality of the paper upon which these priceless and comprehensive poems are here printed.
This is a reader's copy, something to carry and to read. It is not furnishings for your room. It is not furniture. It is not personal adornment. This is the book of Life, to be opened, to be read.
Yes your reading may take its toll upon the vulnerable, gentle binding. Yes, your reading may find one day pages browning, of the old paperstock similar to old paperback books. But this book is to be read, not closed and saved and never seen. Read this book.
If you wish a book for adornment more than for reading, a book which may also withstand intensive reading over a lifetime, please go for the more costly The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume I The Poems. You will still use this humble, serviceable paperback book for your daily reading of Yeats, your nightly study of his lyric and lore.
This is the book you may write in with joy and no regrets. It even has extra sheets for such a notation, and generous margins for your personal annotation and other marginalia, the ennegrams which arise upon dreaming with Yeats.
I can add nothing to what has already been said regarding the need within the human soul to read Yeats, to know Yeats, to love Yeats, to feel Yeats nearby throughout our long, lonely pilgrimage here. I can only defend this particular copy of Mr. Yeat's complete selection of his poetry for his official and authorized canon.
You will find much which is useful here, from the great Mr. Finneran, including notes to the notes which Mr. Yeats himself wrote for his poetry. You will find the indexes you will need, of first lines, etc. You will not find someone to help you find from which particular poem those famous words we so often here, which have entered our daily speech, and which first appeared with Mr. Yeats, now used in so many cultural contexts, for instance: Things Fall Apart: A Novel. "The center will not hold . . ." For this you need to type in every word and do a search; perhaps this is done elsewhere, perhaps through the ambitious Kindle project at its own edition of this most valuable book: COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS.
But above all, read this book, each day. Do not be ashamed by the humble appearance of its paper, any more than you would by the appearance of the poor old woman who becomes Ireland herself. This is the book you can live with, like the old boots you wear each day, which carry you through your work, which though scuffed and scratched and nicked and marked, get you to get the job done, generously, unknown, humble, generously.
Be not ashamed by this book. Read her, and you grow to love her, to know pride, and joy, and to love.
Read this now. And also see of course Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form.
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