Running to Paradise

In Running to Paradise M. L. Rosenthal hailed by the Times Literacy Supplement as 'one of the most important critics of twentieth-century poetry ' leads us on a journey through Yeat's lyric poetry and poetic drama. His close and provocative readings show how profoundly Yeats was affected by the breakdown of tradition and by the often tragic realities of revolution and militant nationalism in Ireland and in the modern world at large. In eight chapters ranging from Yeat's early exquisite lyrical poems-and his early plays rooted in folklore-through his tougher-minded more confessional mature period and then to the inconsistent but often brilliant tragic or comic writing of his last years Rosenthal discovers subtle nuances and hitherto unnoticed connections throughout his work.