William Butler Yeats

Visione e realta, saga e storia, vicende politiche e avventure letterarie e artistiche: le Autobiografie di Yeats ci offrono tutto questo. Nel susseguirsi dei capitoli che compongono ogni "autobiografia", un cronista-poeta ci fa conoscere terre sperdute, ci racconta l''apprendistato di un grande scrittore e compone, attraverso i frammenti di un''esperienza diretta, i ritratti dello scandaloso O. Wilde, del patetico Aubrey Beardsley, di G. B. Shaw, di Lady Gregory, di J. M. Synge, di Douglas Hyde, il filologo e storico del mondo gaelico. "Per mantenere naturali queste note e utili a me stesso, devo impedire che l''una si ricolleghi all''altra, per non arrendermi alla letteratura". Da questo il plurale del titolo.

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John Sherman & Dhoya, novella and story, are among the earliest of W.B. Yeatss published compositions, begun at his fathers prompting when the young poet was living in London in 1888. John Sherman is a poignant and delightful narrative that dramatizes the predicament of a young man in love, troubled by his senses. It is complexly autobiographical, projecting the poets Self and Anti-self through the contrasted personalites of Sherman and Howard, exalting a yearned-for Sligo in the west of Ireland at the expense of an alien English metropolis. Dhoya is a wonder tale of the heroic age, also set in Sligo, blending Irish mythology with local legend, and anticipating the Celtic Twighlight stories of 1893 and the late Byzantium poems. Published first in 1891 and again in 1908, John Shermand & Dhoya last appeared in America in 1969. This text followed that of the first edition and is accompanied by an Afterword by Eve Patten.

William Butler Yeats (Dublín 1865 - Roquebrune 1939), dramaturgo, ensayista, poeta --el más grande de su tiempo, según T. S. Elliot--, partidario decidido de la independencia de Irlanda, conoció en su juventud a las gentes de Sligo y quedo fascinado por sus cuentos y leyendas, patrimonio de un pueblo que vivia inmerso en las posibilidades magicas del universo. Este primer contacto estimulo su deseo de explorar la historia y la mitologia de Irlanda, y el resultado de sus investigaciones, mezclado con el conocimiento de la teologia y filosofia orientales, se transmuto magicamente en las radiantes melodias de sus poemas y sus prosas, donde vibra siempre la dramatica belleza del mundo. Una buena muestra de su capacidad para asimilar los mitos y leyendas de la literatura popular de Irlanda quedo recogida en las dos obras que presentamos en este volumen: La Rosa Secreta y Leyendas de Hanrahan el Rojo, donde la razon y la fantasia se mezclan de forma inextricable.

The present selection traces the development of Yeats' fully annotated verse, encompassing the poet's interest in Irish folklore and national identity, his engagement with the political situation of his day and the rich symbolism that is the hallmark of his work and a reflection of his lifelong fascination with the occult. It contains some of his best-known pieces, including the elegiac 'Easter 1916', the apocalyptic "The Second Coming" and the reflective and spiritual "Sailing to Byzantium". Often radical in content but always traditional in form, these poems are by turns startling and affecting, and never less than inspired. Taken together, they form an ideal introduction to the poetic career of one of Ireland's greatest literary figures.