The Green Helmet and Other Poems

by W. B. Yeats

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Pages: 42

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About this book

Love and friendship sit close to arguments about art in W. B. Yeats's collection of lyrics and dramatic verse. The opening dream places a crowd and a strange ship beside a glittering sea, with death at the centre of their song. Other poems consider remembered affection, the passing of youth and the strain of theatre work. Their speakers can turn from gratitude to bitterness within a few lines, giving private feeling a restless, questioning voice.

The dramatic dialogue moves to a dispute among Cuchulain, Conall and Laegaire. They discuss a visitor whose impossible challenge has left a promise still to be honoured, and their exchanges mix disbelief, boasting and anxiety about reputation. This combination of short poems and verse drama offers readers a way to compare intimate reflection with the public demands of heroic life. Irish legend supplies the dramatic figures, while the lyrics keep returning to words, love and time.

Drama
Poetry

About the author

W. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats (1865 to 1939) was an Irish poet and dramatist, a driving force of the Irish Literary Revival and a co-founder of the Abbey Theatre. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 and is counted among the foremost figures of twentieth-century poetry.