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Beyond that, why should anyone buy this edition as opposed to any of the other available? First, the collected poems gives you a sense of his development and interests, not just the highlights of his greates poems. Second, and more importantly, this edition is well-annotated. The notes are thorough without being unduly interpretive--they tell you what an allusion refers to, not how it affects the meaning of the poem. The notes aim to be useful to any reader, regardless of background. As a result, western readers will come across odd sounding notes such as "Jesus Christ is the founder of Christianity" or "Hamlet is the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name." Still, you'll be thankful for such prosaic entries as they explain Irish myth and locate historical allusions. All in all, it's an edition that belongs on any poetry lover's shelf.
(But hey, if Sodom120--from Louisiana, no less--says these poems are "mediocre," then what do I, the worldwide poetry-reading public, generations of succeeding poets, and the Nobel committee know?)
Yeats was the great poet of the 20th century... For what makes Yeats a great poet is how alive he is at every moment, how vital and unpronouncement-like his poetry is.
He tried to write a "dyed and figured mystery" into each of his poems, and he captured the colors and people of life more vividly than any poet since Shakespeare...
It could have been written yesterday - and would have captured our world exactly.
Yeats speaks to each us anew, every time we read him. He knows that the world we live in, no matter what the time and place, is always filled with evil doers who are filled with passionate intensity, and that the world seems about to slip into a chaotic nightmare...
