Literature of the world : an introductory study . rable extent by Yeatssexperiments in poems in the volumeentitled The Wind amongthe Reeds (1899) and inhis later volumes of poetryare often obscure to theaverage reader. The plays of Yeats aremore poetic than are very impressive,with a strange, hauntingdepth of meaning in whichaction plays a decidedlyminor part. The Land of Hearts Desire is based on the fairy theme of the young bride stolenaway by the elves. Cathleen ni Houlihan pictures the appeal ofIreland in the stormy days of i798toyoung Michael Gillane,who, onthe
Literature of the world : an introductory study . rable extent by Yeatssexperiments in poems in the volumeentitled The Wind amongthe Reeds (1899) and inhis later volumes of poetryare often obscure to theaverage reader. The plays of Yeats aremore poetic than are very impressive,with a strange, hauntingdepth of meaning in whichaction plays a decidedlyminor part. The Land of Hearts Desire is based on the fairy theme of the young bride stolenaway by the elves. Cathleen ni Houlihan pictures the appeal ofIreland in the stormy days of i798toyoung Michael Gillane,who, onthe eve of his wedding, answers this higher call. Shadowy Waters,Deirdre, and On Bailes Strand deal with the heroic age, thelast with the death of Cuchulain. Yeats has recast rather thantranscribed these legends and tales—has made them stand for theeternal quest of the soul for beauty or supreme reality. The poeticcharm of the plays—for they are all written in poetic form—is thesame as that which characterizes his best nondramatic poetry: the. WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS 464 LITERATURE OF THE WORLD almost magical recapture of the far-away mystery and spell ofCeltic tradition, so moving in its appeal. Veatss prose writings include transcripts of popular tales, andessays on literary and mystical subjects, thus paralleling in a gen-eral way his poetical work. The Celtic Twilight is a collectionof tales dealing with the supernatural, taken down by Yeats him-self from the recital by Sligo and Galway peasants. These taleshave all the unaffected charm of substance and speech that char-acterizes the Poems of 1895. In Ideas of Good and Evil andThe Cutting of an Agate we have the best of Yeatss on literary themes are admirably clear and direct, while thosedealing with ethical and religious subjects are in his confirmed veinof shadowy mysticism. The importance of Yeats lies less in his direct influence upon theliterary revival or upon the national theater than in his having freed
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