Essay and Introductions Author:William Butler Yeats If you want to know about poetry, Ireland, the occult, or Yeats himself, this is the book you need. Not for sustained argument, or surgical analysis; but for the breath and cadence of reminiscence, deep-drawn thought, agonizing self-criticism and a well of images that seep into his poems. Sometimes the pleasure of a phrase obscures accuracy, as ... more »he himself admits; but if you can write like this it doesn't matter. Includes the three pivotal essays of the three parts of his life: 'Symbolism and Poetry', 'J.M.Synge and the Ireland of his Time' and 'A General Introduction for my Work' written as preface to a deluxe collected edition of his work that never appeared.« less