John Kelly (22) (1942–)

A superior collection from an engaging poet. Yeats had a knack of grounding modern concerns in raw, earthy settings, often posing these questions with arresting conciseness. Consistently thought-provoking, my favourites in this collection include: 'Adam's Curse', 'The Fisherman', 'A Dialogue of Self and Soul', 'Never Give All the Heart', 'No Second Troy', 'Vacillation', 'A Deep-Sworn Vow' and 'The Tower'.

I actually knew Sweet Fanny Adams about Yeats before going into this book. His works are some of the saddest I've ever read, especially "Politics", written a year before his death. As the poems in this volume are arranged in chronological order, you can see his movement from a young, impassioned poet, obsessed with Irish myth and legend and seeking to tie it into the Revolution, to an old man who is simply tired of war. I would sincerely suggest taking a snowy or rainy day and sitting down show more and reading this little paperback in its entirety. show less

A great selection of poems, mostly concerned with love, death, and/or the beauty of nature. There are a handful that are autobiographical or concerned with historical events (though I think half of those events would've been contemporary at the time the poems were written).

My favorite was "The Realists":

HOPE that you may understand!
What can books of men that wive
In a dragon-guarded land,
Paintings of the dolphin-drawn
Sea-nymphs in their pearly waggons
Do, but awake a hope to live
That had show more gone
With the dragons? show less

Very good poetry, well read.