Responsibilities and Other Poems

By William Butler Yeats

"Responsibilities and Other Poems" is a 1916 collection of poetry by Yeats. William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 - 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the most prolific literary figures of the 20th-century. At the forefront of both the British and Irish literary movements, he co-founded the Abbey Theatre and was, along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others, a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival. In his later life, Yeats also served as a Senator in Ireland. This fantastic volume is highly recommended for all lovers of poetry, and it is not to be missed by readers with an interest in the Irish Literary Revival. Contents include: "Responsibilities, 1912-1914", "Introductory Rhymes", "The Grey Rock", "The Two Kings", "To A Wealthy Man", "September 1913", "To a Friend whose Work has come to Nothing", "Paudeen", "To a Shade", "When Helen Lives", "The Attack on 'The Playboy of the West World", "The Three Beggars", "The Three Hermits", "Beggar to Beggar Cried", etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Jul 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781473349285

William Butler Yeats

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish poet. Born in Sandymount, Yeats was raised between Sligo, England, and Dublin by John Butler Yeats, a prominent painter, and Susan Mary Pollexfen, the daughter of a wealthy merchant family. He began writing poetry around the age of seventeen, influenced by the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, but soon turned to Irish folklore and the mystical writings of William Blake for inspiration. As a young man he joined and founded several occult societies, including the Dublin Hermetic Order and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, participating in séances and rituals as well as acting as a recruiter. While these interests continued throughout Yeats’ life, the poet dedicated much of his middle years to the struggle for Irish independence. In 1904, alongside John Millington Synge, Florence Farr, the Fay brothers, and Annie Horniman, Yeats founded the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, which opened with his play Cathleen ni Houlihan and Lady Gregory’s Spreading the News and remains Ireland’s premier venue for the dramatic arts to this day. Although he was an Irish Nationalist, and despite his work toward establishing a distinctly Irish movement in the arts, Yeats—as is evident in his poem “Easter, 1916”—struggled to identify his idealism with the sectarian violence that emerged with the Easter Rising in 1916. Following the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, however, Yeats was appointed to the role of Senator and served two terms in the position. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923, and continued to write and publish poetry, philosophical and occult writings, and plays until his death in 1939.

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RESPONSIBILITIES

AND OTHER POEMS

BY

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Copyright © 2017 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from

the British Library

Contents

W. B. Yeats

RESPONSIBILITIES

THE GREY ROCK

THE TWO KINGS

TO A WEALTHY MAN WHO PROMISED A SECOND SUBSCRIPTION TO THE DUBLIN MUNICIPAL GALLERY IF IT WERE PROVED THE PEOPLE WANTED PICTURES

SEPTEMBER 1913

PAUDEEN

TO A SHADE

WHEN HELEN LIVED

THE ATTACK ON 'THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD,' 1907

THE THREE BEGGARS

THE WELL AND THE TREE

RUNNING TO PARADISE

THE HOUR BEFORE DAWN

THE PLAYER QUEEN

THE REALISTS

I. THE WITCH

II. THE PEACOCK

THE MOUNTAIN TOMB

TO A CHILD DANCING IN THE WIND

A MEMORY OF YOUTH

FALLEN MAJESTY

FRIENDS

THE COLD HEAVEN

THAT THE NIGHT COME

AN APPOINTMENT

I. THE MAGI

II. THE DOLLS

A COAT

HIS DREAM

A WOMAN HOMER SUNG

THE CONSOLATION

NO SECOND TROY

RECONCILIATION

KING AND NO KING

PEACE

AGAINST UNWORTHY PRAISE

THE FASCINATION OF WHAT'S DIFFICULT

A DRINKING SONG

THE COMING OF WISDOM WITH TIME

ON HEARING THAT THE STUDENTS OF OUR NEW UNIVERSITY HAVE JOINED THE ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS AND THE AGITATION AGAINST IMMORAL LITERATURE

TO A POET, WHO WOULD HAVE ME PRAISE CERTAIN BAD POETS, IMITATORS OF HIS AND MINE

THE MASK

UPON A HOUSE SHAKEN BY THE LAND AGITATION

AT THE ABBEY THEATRE

THESE ARE THE CLOUDS

AT GALWAY RACES

A FRIEND'S ILLNESS

ALL THINGS CAN TEMPT ME

THE YOUNG MAN'S SONG

THE HOUR-GLASS

NOTES

W. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born in Sandymount, County Dublin, Ireland in 1865. He spent his childhood in Country Sligo, and was educated in London, but returned to Dublin at the age of fifteen with the intention of pursuing painting. However, he quickly discovered he preferred poetry, and became involved with the Celtic Revival, an Irish movement resisting the cultural influence of English rule during the Victorian period. Throughout his life, much of Yeats’ work was included by Irish mythology and folklore, as well as various types of mysticism and occultism.

Yeats’ first verse play, Mosada, was published in 1886. Over the next few years, he continued to write, and mingled with many literary luminaries of the day, such as George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. His The Wanderings of Usheen and other Poems was published in 1889, and brought him some attention from critics. In the late 1890s, he became involved with The Abbey Theatre – the institution which propelled him to fame and success. As its chief playwright, Yeats staged a number of his best-remembered productions during the years up to 1911, including The Countess Cathleen (1892), The Land of Heart’s Desire (1894) and The King’s Threshold (1904).

From 1910 onwards, Yeats focussed more on poetry. The collections of lyrical poetry he penned during his last decades - such as The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), and Last Poems and Plays (1940) – made him one of the most acclaimed and influential poets in Europe. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in 1939, aged 73, and is now regarded as one of the twentieth century's key English language poets, and a master of the traditional forms.

'In dreams begins responsibility.'

Old Play.

'How am I fallen from myself, for a long time now

I have not seen the Prince of Chang in my dreams.'

Khoung-fou-tseu.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Pardon, old fathers, if you still remain

Somewhere in ear-shot for the story's end,

Old Dublin merchant 'free of ten and four'

Or trading out of Galway into Spain;

And country scholar, Robert Emmet's friend,

A hundred-year-old memory to the poor;

Traders or soldiers who have left me blood

That has not passed through any huxter's loin,

Pardon, and you that did not weigh the cost,

Old Butlers when you took to horse and stood

Beside the brackish waters of the Boyne

Till your bad master blenched and all was lost;

You merchant skipper that leaped overboard

After a ragged hat in Biscay Bay,

You most of all, silent and fierce old man

Because you were the spectacle that stirred

My fancy, and set my boyish lips to say

'Only the wasteful virtues earn the sun';

Pardon that for a barren passion's sake,

Although I have come close on forty-nine

I have no child, I have nothing but a book,

Nothing but that to prove your blood and mine.

January 1914.

THE GREY ROCK

Poets with whom I learned my trade,

Companions of the Cheshire Cheese,

Here's an old story I've re-made,

Imagining 'twould better please

Your ears than stories now in fashion,

Though you may think I waste my breath

Pretending that there can be