A review of “The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats” in 100 words by Catherine Stover
In 1919, the Irish poet W.B. Yeats’ pregnant wife nearly died during the flu pandemic. The Great War had resulted in widespread suffering, and the Easter Rising in Ireland had been brutally suppressed. Yeats wrote his most haunting poem “The Second Coming.” He also wrote a poem that begins: “Once more the storm is howling, and half hid / under this cradle-hood and coverlid / my child sleeps on. . . . And for an hour I have walked and prayed / because of the great gloom that is in my mind.” This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for Yeats. I am keeping his poems within reach this week.
Work cited:
Yeats, W. B. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. Revised 2nd edition. Edited by Richard J. Finneran. Scribner, 2024, p. 187.