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A review by ilybinaya
Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats by W.B. Yeats
4.0
yeats' poems are of the classical sort, which is sort of like the typical 18th/ 19th century poems, but what comes with these poems is far more than just glory, battle, vanity, all such which is prominently shown in Pushkin's poetry, amidst love and women. yeats manages to give a wide range of poetry, that covers from his early days to that of his later, and there is a clear progression from the focus point shifting from mythology, or even religious ones to that could be commonly applied to people of all sorts. some of them embed the dissatisfaction which yeats himself may have felt, and it is clearly a warning note of some sort that speaks to us, even though it's almost a century after his time. in his poem The Spirit Medium, there is this line: "To follow is to die;", very gripping. and in his other poem What was Lost, he wrote:
"I sing what was lost and dread what was won,
I walk in a battle fought over again,
My king a lost king, and lost soldiers my men;
Feet to the Rising and Setting may run,
They always beat on the same small stone."
intending to change the world, or to slightly influence via his words, he wrote the following poem, What Then?:
"His chosen comrades thought at school
He must grow a famous man;
He thought the same and lived by rule,
All his twenties crammed with toil;
'What then?' sang Plato's ghost. 'What then?'
Everything he wrote was read,
After certain years he won
Sufficient money for his need,
Friends that have been friends indeed;
'What then?' sang Plato's ghost. ' What then?'
All his happier dreams came true -
A small old house, wife, daughter, son,
Grounds where plum and cabbage grew,
poets and Wits about him drew;
'What then.?' sang Plato's ghost. 'What then?'
The work is done,' grown old he thought,
'According to my boyish plan;
Let the fools rage, I swerved in naught,
Something to perfection brought';
But louder sang that ghost, 'What then?' "
his idealistic thoughts and his love for the world is shown very thoroughly in his poems, which is an insight quite ahead of his time. he is somehow old fashioned to have been using a lot of biblical content in his poems, but not so much that the bible ruins his work, instead, he is the perfect embodiment of which Nietzsche would call "slave morality", which he favours all the unearthly goods over the earthly goods, and for the sake of humanity in our times, it seems to be a better direction to head rather than power, fame, and prosperity.
"I sing what was lost and dread what was won,
I walk in a battle fought over again,
My king a lost king, and lost soldiers my men;
Feet to the Rising and Setting may run,
They always beat on the same small stone."
intending to change the world, or to slightly influence via his words, he wrote the following poem, What Then?:
"His chosen comrades thought at school
He must grow a famous man;
He thought the same and lived by rule,
All his twenties crammed with toil;
'What then?' sang Plato's ghost. 'What then?'
Everything he wrote was read,
After certain years he won
Sufficient money for his need,
Friends that have been friends indeed;
'What then?' sang Plato's ghost. ' What then?'
All his happier dreams came true -
A small old house, wife, daughter, son,
Grounds where plum and cabbage grew,
poets and Wits about him drew;
'What then.?' sang Plato's ghost. 'What then?'
The work is done,' grown old he thought,
'According to my boyish plan;
Let the fools rage, I swerved in naught,
Something to perfection brought';
But louder sang that ghost, 'What then?' "
his idealistic thoughts and his love for the world is shown very thoroughly in his poems, which is an insight quite ahead of his time. he is somehow old fashioned to have been using a lot of biblical content in his poems, but not so much that the bible ruins his work, instead, he is the perfect embodiment of which Nietzsche would call "slave morality", which he favours all the unearthly goods over the earthly goods, and for the sake of humanity in our times, it seems to be a better direction to head rather than power, fame, and prosperity.