I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't this. It all came about rather oddly, I saw a phrase from "The Second Coming" and looked it up to refresh my memory. I ended up reading not only that poem, but a number of others and various commentaries and criticism - and ended up considering whether or not I might actually like Yeats rather than just a couple of isolated poems. So ---- I went to Amazon to see what they had for free. After examining quite a number of pages of works by Yeats that were either free or nearly so, I just went back to the top and ordered the first thing on the list.
After Eavan Boland and a blast of feminist criticism this summer, I suppose I expected this to be nationalistic and chauvinistic. On the other hand, maybe I have no idea what I was reading - or what I was hearing this summer.
This was low-key, nostalgic, and anecdotal. It was also a little wistful at the sense that even Ireland was joining the world of rationality and leaving faery behind. It was in no way an attempt to define and categorize the tales he heard, or to trace origins and antecedents. He simply told the stories as they were told to him. He also threw in a little verse here and there - if not stating outright, at least implying that it was traditional and not of his composing.
I'm a little concerned that those whose lifework is the study of literature would be happy to inform me that I have absolutely no understanding of the subtext, but, since they are unlikely to read this, I shall go on my merry way enjoying what I read - at my own undoubtably superficial level.
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