1st Edition

Unlocking the Poetry of W. B. Yeats Heart Mysteries

By Daniel Tompsett Copyright 2018
402 Pages
by Routledge

402 Pages
by Routledge

402 Pages
by Routledge

Unlocking the Poetry of W.B. Yeats undertakes a thorough re-reading of Yeats' oeuvre as an extended meditation on the image and theme of the heart as it is evident within the poetry. It places the heart at the centre of a complex web of Yeatsian preoccupations and associations—from the biographical, to the poetic and philosophical, to the mythological and mystical. In particular, the book seeks... Read more

Contents





 



 



Permissions



Acknowledgments



Introduction





Part I: The Desires of the Heart



1 The Wanderings of Oisin (1889) - Themes of the Embittered Heart



2 Early Lyrics - Souls Threshed from Husks of Threshed Stars





Part II: The Divided Heart



3 The Middle Poems - Death and Rebirth



4 The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) - Toward a Coole Vision



5 Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921) - Kindling New Fire





Part III: Sufficient Heart Truths



6 The Tower (1928) - The Towering Heart of the Absolute



7 The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933) - Spirit and Matter Upon the Winding Stair



8 Parnell's Funeral and Other Poems (1935) - Magical Drumming to Absorb the Antinomies





Part IV: Tragic Joy and the Weighing of the Heart



9 New Poems (1938) - Tragic Joy in the Gyres



10 Last Poems (1939) - The Weighing of the Heart





Conclusion





Notes



Bibliography



Index

Biography

Daniel Tompsett was awarded his PhD in English Literature by Queen Mary, University of London. In 2012, he published Wallace Stevens and Pre-Socratic Philosophy (Routledge), and is principally concerned with 20th Century poetry, Modernism, and the connections between philosophy, mythology and literature. He is currently Head of Research at a UK Accountancy and Advisory firm.