Book description
This collection brings together all of W. B. Yeats s published prose
writings on Irish folklore, legend and myth, with pieces on subjects
including ghosts, kidnappers, fairies, ancient tribes, precious stones
and Gaelic love songs. Through his researches on Irish folklore, Yeats
attempted to create a movement in literature that was enriched by and
rooted in a vital native tradition. In this volume Yeats s essays,
introductions and sketches are presented chronologically, giving a clear
picture of how his analysis developed, increasing in its depth and
complexity in his quest to create an Ireland of the imagination. W B
Yeats (1865 - 1939) is one of the great and innovative poets of the
twentieth century. Much of his most vigorous verse on love, sex, Irish
and international politics, the complexities of the occult and the
'sedentary toil' of poetry was producedin the years between his fiftieth
birthday in 1915 and his death in 1939.
