Table Of ContentW. B. YEATS
MAN AND POET
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W. B.
YEATS
MAN AND POET
A. Norman Jeffares
Palgrave Macmillan
W. B. Yeats
Copyright © 1996 by A. Norman Jeffares
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles or reviews. For information, address:
St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
First published in the United States of America in 1996
ISBN 978-0-312-15814-9 ISBN 978-1-137-06469-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-06469-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jeffares, A. Norman (Alexander Norman). 1920-
W.B. Yeats, man and poet / by A. Norman Jeffares.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York : Barnes & Noble. [1966].
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939. 2. Poets.
Irish-20th century-Biography. 3. Ireland-In literature.
I. Title.
PR5906. J42 1996
821'.8--dc20
[B] 95-42140
CIP
To the Memory of
My Mother
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ix
I. PRELUDE TO POETRY (PRE-1700-1885) 1
II. HIS FIRST BooK OF POETRY 0885-1889) 18
III. TECHNIQUE AND INSPIRATION 0889-1892) 40
IV. ANTICLIMAX 0891-1896) 71
V. THE END OF AESTHETICISM 0896-1899) 90
VI. MAN OF ACTION 0899-1908) 108
VII. RESPONSIBILITIES 0908-1915) 139
VIII. THE MARRIED PHILOSOPHER 0916-1919) 165
IX. THE TOWER 0917-1928) 193
X. (I) VACILLATION 0927-1932) 229
(rr) AN Ow MAN's EAGLE EYE 0932-1939) 252
NOTES 275
BIBLIOGRAPHY 313
APPENDIX 325
INDEX 327
Thoor Ballylee, County Galway
INTRODUCTION
T
his book, originally published in 1949, went into a second edition in 1962
and has remained in print since then. This third edition now enables me to
correct some minor errors in the light of fresh evidence, but I have not made
any· major revisions to the text, because, on re-reading, I find that the book's
presentation of relationships between Yeats's life and work still seems valid. Its
aims included attempting to help readers to understand some often obscure
poems better, to see the interrelationships between work written at different
times in Yeats's life and to realise something of how he himself viewed his life
and his poetry at particular, crucial moments.
When I wrote the book Yeats's wrilings were completely out of print and
hard to come by; this led me to quote freely from both his published and
unpublished work. In doing this I had the permission and the approval of the
poet's widow, George Yeats, whom I first met when I was a schoolboy. Her
subsequent kindness to me when I began my research into Yeats's life and
writings was never failing. Not only did she give me access to Yeats's
manuscripts and manuscript books but to the vast amount of unpublished
material in notebooks, diaries, letters and documents, and to various private
papers, as well, of course, to the books in his library. She also helped me in
many other ways. She aided me in deciphering and interpreting numerous
obscurities in the poet's often baffling handwriting, in establishing the dating of
many poems, and in providing acute, trenchant criticism of what I suggested or
wrote. Her knowledge of the meanings of many poems which she had
discussed with her husband as well as her familiarity with the publishing
history of his work and his plans for its publication in the projected Macmillan
de Luxe (or Coole) Edition and in Scribner's projected Dublin Edition was,
quite simply, invaluable. Indeed her role as guardian of the poet's books and
papers was exemplary: her care to get facts about him and his work correct
was scrupulous, and her appreciation of his achievement the better for the high
seriousness-tempered by a sharply ironic sense of humour-with which she
viewed life as a whole. She was a fine person, extremely intelligent, widely
read, critically astute and wise.
I was also fortunate to know Maud Gonne and her daughter, Iseult, who
both talked very freely and helpfully to me about Yeats and gave me many
insights into his relationships with them. (It has been a great delight recently to
have shared with Anna MacBride White, Maud's granddaughter, the editing of
Tbe Gonne-Yeats Letters and to be at present engaged with her in the co-editing
of Iseult Gonne's letters to Yeats.)
Lily Yeats allowed me to copy many family documents, and was amusedly,
sharply forthright in her discussions of Yeats, Pollexfen and Middleton
relatives, drawing vivid pictures of childhood life in Sligo, describing aspects of
the family's later life in London and later at Gurteen Dhas in County Dublin, as
