The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol. V: Later Essays (The Collected Works of W.B. Essays, Vol 5)

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Summary: Yeat As Creative Critic
Review: Yeats' literary criticism demonstrates his tenets and poetics-his working notions of poetry and culture-far more immediately and accessibly in his essays than he does in the web of arcana expounded in A Vision (q.v.). Of essays gathered here, some are seminal not only to Yeats' poetics but also to interpretive approaches to literature. The most significant-"The Philosophy of Shelley's Poetry" (precursor to archetypal symbolism and to Jungian ideas of the collective unconscious), "The Symbolism of Poetry," "The Celtic Element in Literature," "Certain Noble Plays of Japan" (the model of Yeats' Noh plays), and "A General Introduction for My Work."