When You Are Old: Early Poems, Plays, and Fairy Tales

Resumen del libro

Beautiful early writings by one of the 20th century's greatest poets on the 150th anniversary of his birth
The poems, prose, and drama gathered in "When You Are Old "present a fresh portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning writer as a younger man: the 1890s aesthete who dressed as a dandy, collected Irish folklore, dabbled in magic, and wrote heartrending poems for his beloved, the beautiful, elusive Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne. Included here are such celebrated, lyrical poems as "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" and "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," as well as Yeats's imaginative retellings of Irish fairytales--including his first major poem, "The Wanderings of Oisin," based on a Celtic fable--and his critical writings, which offer a fascinating window onto his artistic theories. Through these enchanting works, readers will encounter Yeats as the mystical, lovelorn bard and Irish nationalist popular during his own lifetime.

Biografía del autor

William Butler Yeats (Dublín, 1865- Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Francia, 1939) Poeta y dramaturgo irlandés. Creador del estilo celta crepuscular, fue sin duda el máximo representante del renacimiento de la literatura irlandesa moderna, y uno de los autores más destacados del siglo xx. Recibió el Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1923. El mayor logro de Yeats fue independizar la cultura irlandesa de los moldes ingleses, tanto en la temática como en la expresión. La poesía de Yeats suele estar inspirada en el paisaje, los ambientes y los mitos de la cultura tradicional irlandesa, especialmente en las leyendas de origen celta, con una constante preocupación por la musicalidad del verso.