Reviews

When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales by W.B. Yeats

allieperkins's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.0

erinkayata's review against another edition

4.0

He's a fav. The earlier, the better imo. Later stuff was okay.

jbordeaux's review against another edition

4.0

I only read a few poems for a Celtic literature class I'm taking, but wow! Yeates' use of language, mythology, and the imagery of several of the landscapes he describes is amazing. It's no wonder that he is one of the greatest Irish poets of all time.

savagemommy's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

3.5

honestrabbit's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.0

guinness74's review against another edition

3.0

Three stars might be generous as I really didn’t much care for the poetry and the stories were unevenly good. I think it’s safe to say that Yeats is one of my least favorite Irish writers. There is a lot to like in this book, but what isn’t overshadows that. The cover is really pretty though, so, that’s something.

blueyorkie's review

5.0

Although Yeats had listened with fascination as a boy in the western Irish village of Sligo to his mother's stories about ghosts, fairies, his interest in fairy tales was spurred during the late 1880s primarily by his involvement in theosophy and other forms of spiritualism. Yeats was Protestant by birth, but his father, the painter John Butler Yeats, was a Victorian agnostic who instilled in his eldest son a sceptical attitude toward Ireland's two mainstream religions. Yeats did not, however, share his father's commitment to scientific materialism. He believed instead in the theosophist notion that deeper truths, woven throughout all of the world's religions and spiritual traditions, are only accessible when individual thought transcends rationality and merges with the collective mind."

Introduction

rowan86's review against another edition

2.0

His poetry is filled with so much imagery and descriptions that it's sickly sweet as if someone melted candy, added a truckload of sugar, and shoved it down my throat. Moderation, yeats, moderation. I quite enjoyed the wandering of Usheen but at times it dragged on. it was an interesting story though, and I enjoyed the depictions of Irish mythological creatures and people. I think I'm the kind of person who prefers poetry that's filled with simpler words? [a:Siegfried Sassoon|146538|Siegfried Sassoon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1210181586p2/146538.jpg] is still my utter favourite because I can both see the scene playing out (unlike in When You Are Old-- it's basically metaphor land here) AND enjoy the language and feel the despair of world war one. By now, everyone who has talked to me about poetry knows I love Sassoon because I can't stop talking about him the moment someone mentions poetry. See? he's taken up half my review now. I need to stop gushing over him in completely unrelated book reviews.

Anyways, the song of the happy Shepard was also one of my favourites, even more so because it shares a phrase with one of my favourite pieces in my favourite movie soundtrack (here's a link:) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53-Q2_2HgaI

Casting aside the obvious bias, I quite like the dreamy description of astronomers/astrologers, especially since astrophysics is one of my main interests.

Then no wise worship dusty deeds,
Nor seek-- for this is also sooth--
To hunger fiercely after truth,
Lest all thy toiling only breeds
New dreams, new dreams; there is no truth,
Saving in thine own heart. Seek, then,
No learning from the starry men,
Who follow with the optic glass
The whirling ways of stars that pass--

I also really enjoyed The Wandering of Oisín/Usheen. Apparently, he was the son of Fionn mac Cumhaill! (Here's a video about him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVHyXcAJ-Ks)

TedEd also has a really nice summary of the legend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nFcXcPldzY

I personally would not recommend it for young, impatient people like me. When You Grow Old-- more like for when you grow older.

I'll revisit it when I have time to analyse the symbolism. I'm sure I would appreciate Yeats' poetry more if I broke it down but I think the mark of a great poet is when their poetry can be appreciated by both literary lovers and those with no interest in poems.

I feel like I've been rather harsh after rereading this review, but to be fair I've been reading this book for a month now.

samcarlin's review against another edition

2.0

I liked the prose, but I really don't care for poetry. It seems like a good book, just not my cup of tea.

soyouwinagain's review against another edition

4.0

Apparently, I am currently on an Ireland kick.

I really, really enjoyed most of the poems included in here and actually liked the fairytales as well (as they were mostly stories about faerie encounters instead of Grimm-style stories which I am not a huge fan of nowadays).