Selections from William Butler Yeats' poetry revealing an autobiographical account of his sudden heart problem and severe depression. Both my father and I loved poetry; we quoted it to each other all the time.He had racks of it on his bookshelves and delighted in showing me the beauty and honesty of the mere arrangement of words. When I began to systematically read the later poetry of William Butler Yeats I was looking for the story of his extra-marital lover, a young Catholic woman who gave birth to his first beloved son. But she was murdered and he had to abandon his son. I found everything I was looking for right here in the poetry.

William Butler Yeats had an extra-marital lover, Lily O'Neill or Honor Bright, from 1918 to 1925. Garda Superintendent Leopold Dillon murdered her on orders from Kevin O'Higgins, Minister of Justice of the Irish Free State. George, Senator Yeats's wife, reported falsely that Lily was a Republican spy. O'Higgins wanted to restore credence in the Free State, which would otherwise have been reclaimed by the British due to maladministration. Afterwards a bogus trial was concocted outside the court circuit by Chief Superintendent David Neligan, at which Lily was reinvented as a prostitute to conceal Yeats's affair and son, and hide the involvement of Free State officials. On the strength of false evidence the jury unanimously acquitted the assassin after three minutes deliberation.

This engaging introduction to poetry covers the entire tradition of poetry in English, providing close readings of interesting and varied texts. In this updated second edition, coverage has been expanded to cover medieval poetry and to give more weight to literary theory and women poets, while a new chapter focuses on key contemporary poets.

Compilation of all the poems from The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) and Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921) includes "The Second Coming," "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death," many others.