W. B. YEATS MAN AND POET This page intentionally left blank W. B. YEATS MAN AND POET A. Norman Jeffares Palgrave Macmillan W. B. Yeats Copyright © 1996 by A. Norman Jeffares All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address: St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1996 ISBN 978-0-312-15814-9 ISBN 978-1-137-06469-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-06469-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jeffares, A. Norman (Alexander Norman). 1920- W.B. Yeats, man and poet / by A. Norman Jeffares. p. cm. Originally published: New York : Barnes & Noble. [1966]. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939. 2. Poets. Irish-20th century-Biography. 3. Ireland-In literature. I. Title. PR5906. J42 1996 821'.8--dc20 [B] 95-42140 CIP To the Memory of My Mother This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ix I. PRELUDE TO POETRY (PRE-1700-1885) 1 II. HIS FIRST BooK OF POETRY 0885-1889) 18 III. TECHNIQUE AND INSPIRATION 0889-1892) 40 IV. ANTICLIMAX 0891-1896) 71 V. THE END OF AESTHETICISM 0896-1899) 90 VI. MAN OF ACTION 0899-1908) 108 VII. RESPONSIBILITIES 0908-1915) 139 VIII. THE MARRIED PHILOSOPHER 0916-1919) 165 IX. THE TOWER 0917-1928) 193 X. (I) VACILLATION 0927-1932) 229 (rr) AN Ow MAN's EAGLE EYE 0932-1939) 252 NOTES 275 BIBLIOGRAPHY 313 APPENDIX 325 INDEX 327 Thoor Ballylee, County Galway INTRODUCTION T his book, originally published in 1949, went into a second edition in 1962 and has remained in print since then. This third edition now enables me to correct some minor errors in the light of fresh evidence, but I have not made any· major revisions to the text, because, on re-reading, I find that the book's presentation of relationships between Yeats's life and work still seems valid. Its aims included attempting to help readers to understand some often obscure poems better, to see the interrelationships between work written at different times in Yeats's life and to realise something of how he himself viewed his life and his poetry at particular, crucial moments. When I wrote the book Yeats's wrilings were completely out of print and hard to come by; this led me to quote freely from both his published and unpublished work. In doing this I had the permission and the approval of the poet's widow, George Yeats, whom I first met when I was a schoolboy. Her subsequent kindness to me when I began my research into Yeats's life and writings was never failing. Not only did she give me access to Yeats's manuscripts and manuscript books but to the vast amount of unpublished material in notebooks, diaries, letters and documents, and to various private papers, as well, of course, to the books in his library. She also helped me in many other ways. She aided me in deciphering and interpreting numerous obscurities in the poet's often baffling handwriting, in establishing the dating of many poems, and in providing acute, trenchant criticism of what I suggested or wrote. Her knowledge of the meanings of many poems which she had discussed with her husband as well as her familiarity with the publishing history of his work and his plans for its publication in the projected Macmillan de Luxe (or Coole) Edition and in Scribner's projected Dublin Edition was, quite simply, invaluable. Indeed her role as guardian of the poet's books and papers was exemplary: her care to get facts about him and his work correct was scrupulous, and her appreciation of his achievement the better for the high seriousness-tempered by a sharply ironic sense of humour-with which she viewed life as a whole. She was a fine person, extremely intelligent, widely read, critically astute and wise. I was also fortunate to know Maud Gonne and her daughter, Iseult, who both talked very freely and helpfully to me about Yeats and gave me many insights into his relationships with them. (It has been a great delight recently to have shared with Anna MacBride White, Maud's granddaughter, the editing of Tbe Gonne-Yeats Letters and to be at present engaged with her in the co-editing of Iseult Gonne's letters to Yeats.) Lily Yeats allowed me to copy many family documents, and was amusedly, sharply forthright in her discussions of Yeats, Pollexfen and Middleton relatives, drawing vivid pictures of childhood life in Sligo, describing aspects of the family's later life in London and later at Gurteen Dhas in County Dublin, as