Author Description
The Acclaimed First Volume Of This Definitive Biography Of W. B. Yeats Left Him In His Fiftieth Year, At A Crossroads In His Life. The Subsequent Quarter-century Surveyed In The Arch-poet Takes In His Rediscovery Of Advanced Nationalism And His Struggle For An Independent Irish Culture, His Continued Pursuit Of Supernatural Truths Through Occult Experimentation, His Extraordinary Marriage, And A Series Of Tumultuous Love Affairs. Throughout He Was Writing His Greatest Poems: 'the Fisherman' And 'the Wild Swans At Coole' In Their Stark Simplicity; The Magnificently Complex Sequences On The Troubles And Civil War; The Byzantium Poems; And The Radically Compressed Last Work - Some Of It Literally Written On His Deathbed. The Drama Of His Life Is Mapped Against The History Of The Irish Revolution And The New Irish State Founded In 1922. Yeats's Many Political Roles And His Controversial Involvement In A Right-wing Movement During The Early 1930s Are Covered More Closely Than Ever Before, And His Complex And Passionate Relationship With The Developing History Of His Country Remains A Central Theme. Throughout This Book, The Genesis, Alteration, And Presentation Of His Work (memoirs And Polemic As Well As Poetry) Is Explored Through His Private And Public Life. The Enormous And Varied Circle Of Yeats's Friends, Lovers, Family, Collaborators, And Antagonists Inhabit And Enrich A Personal World Of Astounding Energy, Artistic Commitment, And Verve. Yeats Constantly Re-created Himself And His Work, Believing That Art Was 'not The Chief End Of Life But An Accident In One's Search For Reality': A Search Which Brought Him Again And Again Back To His Governing Preoccupations: Sex And Death. He Also Held That 'all Knowledge Is Biography', A Belief Reflected In This Study Of One Of The Greatest Lives Of Modern Times.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This volume investigates the final twenty-five years of W. B. Yeats's life, examining how his personal evolution and occult interests intersected with the political formation of the Irish state. R. F. Foster, a noted historian of Ireland, utilizes extensive archival research and private correspondence to construct a detailed portrait of the poet's later years. The work argues that Yeats's creative output was inextricably linked to his shifting political allegiances and his persistent, lifelong preoccupation with mortality and mysticism.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of Yeats's involvement in Irish nationalism and the political climate of the 1920s and 1930s.
- Examination of the poet's occult practices and their influence on his later literary sequences.
- Detailed accounts of his marriage, personal relationships, and social circle.
- Critical exploration of the genesis and revision of his major late-career poems.
Scope Limits
- This volume does not cover the first fifty years of the subject's life, which were addressed in the preceding book.
- The text focuses primarily on the intersection of biography and literary production rather than providing a comprehensive literary analysis of every individual poem.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars and critics widely regard this work as the definitive biographical account of the poet's later years due to its meticulous use of primary source material. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which provides a thorough, scholarly examination of the subject's complex public and private life.
Page Count:
868
Publication Date:
2005-01-01
Publisher:
Oup Oxford
ISBN-10:
0191584258
ISBN-13:
9780191584251
History
Biography
Poetry
Non-Fiction
Literary Criticism
Irish literature