W.B. Yeats and the Learning of Imagination - Softcover

Kathleen Raine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0903880725 ISBN 13: 9780903880725

Publisher: Golgonooza Press, 1999

Synopsis

At a time when Yeats studies are narrowing down the focus of interest to the minutiae of the poet's personal life, this book argues that by his 'learning of the Imagination' W.B. Yeats was not only a great poet but also a great imaginative mind. His work marks a cultural watershed in that where as English poetry up to and including Eliot drew upon European civilisation, Yeats additionally drew upon world culture: Irish mythology, Arabic, Japanese, Indian wisdom and much besides. The extent and import of his learning cannot, as the author argues, be appreciated by a mentality that merely reflects current materialist values. The Irish poet stood within a tradition of spiritual and esoteric knowledge which has been largely ignored by his critics making many of their judgements inappropriate. Kathleen Raine's words in this book distill for us the essence of Yeat's imagination. We appreciate not only the beauty of the poems of this great craftsman of words but also his desire to inspire the deepening of soul knowledge.

About this title

About the Author:

Kathleen Raine has long been recognised as one of the most profound commentators on Yeats's work. Like Yeats himself she is a Blake scholar of world renown and shares the values by which Yeats lived in the belief that great poetry is only possible within the traditional view of man as a spiritual being.

About this edition

• Publisher: Golgonooza Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0903880725
• ISBN 13: 9780903880725
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128
• Editor: Brian Keeble