A truly amazing and very poignant book. Triston has a great style that places you in his eyes and allows you to feel his emotions. This man has experienced more in his life than most of us could in 10 lifetimes. A great adventure by a great man. A sure hit for the sailor or non-sailor.

I sought the man, in order to tell him how inspirational his adventures and his books are to me...I am disabled but with Tristan's writings, the adventurous spirit that lives inside of me is alive and 'abled' through the honesty in the telling, the respect for all people as individuals and the frankness regarding the truth of life. Tristan speaks with his heart .. the delights and cruelties of nature and man, are beyond words into the innocent love of the Creator through His Creations. I will never pilot any type of boat (nor would I wish to)nor would I ever sail or desire to. Tristan's books are more than that, more than the challenge to do the same as he. They are about the beauty of Life itself and the value of it. Unfortunatly, Tristan Jones passed away before I 'discovered' his books and I was unable to tell him how his writings, his honest persona awakened my heart. No reader of Tristan's books is disabled. I travel with him and I learn about Life all over again.

"Saga of a Wayward Sailor" and "The Incredible Voyage," as were most of Tristan Jones' books, were an inspiration that gave me the fortitude to continue building my own boat and then to sail the south Pacific and Asian waters. I paid tribute to Tristan by devoting a chapter to him in my most recent book "At Home In Asia." I was fortunate to have met him later. I was carrying a copy of the book from Singapore where it was printed to Tristan who was living in Phuket at the time. But I was too late. Tristan had died a few days before. Harold Stephens

Sentiment and emotion ride the waves with scholarly precision as Flinn pens the book Dean Koontz wishes he could write but knows he can't. Masterfully ignoring the conventions of the techno-thriller, this book steps boldly where Tom Clancy fears to tread. If you liked "The Bridges of Madison County" or "Trade and Tariff Policy in the Weimar Republic," this is the book for you.

In clear prose, with a distinctive, piercing style, the author addresses the subject and exposes its surfaces and depths. Anyone interested in these poets should be sure to purchase a copy

The more I have learnt about Yeats and his life the more approachable and enjoyable I have found his poetry.

I bought this book for a close friend and fellow lover of Yeats poetry and read it after she did. Yeats writes about his life and philosophy with the same skill and breadth he brings to his poetry. I found the notes added for this edition both useful and interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Yeats, his philosophy, life and poetry.

This new, standard edition is the first to provide explanatory notes. The text has been rigorously checked against earlier editions and manuscripts. The index usefully includes both the text and the notes. (I am editor of the book.)

This is an essential read for any Yeats fan. It shows his will to believe at its most naked, before the gyres and slouching Sphinxes forged it into System. You can see Yeats mapping the wistful melancholy of his early poems onto the village folklore around his family home in Sligo--already in 1893, he's looking for a way to weld his personal interests in aestheticism and the occult to a wider national cause. You'll also find the seeds of the older proto-Fascist Yeats in his worship of lineage, parochial peasant wisdom and anti-modernism (the faery folk, along with the Great Anglo-Irish houses, have sadly for Yeats all but disappeared). The dreamy villagers he meets with turn back the clock against "that decadence we call progress" in a way that the poet at 28 already finds powerfully attractive.

Most of Yeats's early poems can be linked to a vignette from "The Celtic Twilight," while recurring motifs from his later writings--beauty, passionate old age, ghosts--take on a deeper resonance after reading these lighter pieces. Yeats walks a fine line between believing in the faeries that so many of the peasants he talks to can see, and regarding them simply as "dramatizations of our moods," an example of the tragic Celtic taste for unreachable beauty that he wanted to capture in his poems. Yeats walked that line in one form or another his whole life, and I understood the poems much better after reading these sketches--for that alone, this book's worth a read.

Those who love the poetry & mystery of Celtic stories, must have this book. As a Celtic witch who knows other Celtic witches, I am always dumbfounded to learn that they have read every shallow Llewellyn book on Celtic magic, but have not read Yeats. Shame! Of all the writers one could encounter, who better than a great poet to relate such magic of the fay?
In this book of many short stories, the author relates tales told to him of faeries, ghosts, and mystical creatures. It was first published in 1893, so it has the wonderful quaint quality of its age, without being dated or dry.
Find a copy of this classic, wonderful volume & experience the magic of the Celtic hedgerows, villages & faery hills of long ago....

Unterecker's "Reader's Guide," a vade mecum for the apprentice
or seasoned reader, informs and instructs. As commentary or teaching tool, it advances a concise, systematic way to interpret the ideas, literary devices, images, symbols, and occult motifs that permeate Yeats's poetry, a thematic
analysis that connects one poem with another and reveals the visionary design at the center of Yeats's work. From the allegorical quest in "The Wanderings of Oisin" to the meditative panorama of "Under Ben Bulben," Unterecker explicates the motifs of Yeats's evolving mythology of a unified self.

Unterecker's "Reader's Guide," a vade mecum for the novice or seasoned reader, informs and instructs. As commentary or teaching tool, it advances a concise, systematic way to interpret the ideas, literary devices, images, symbols, and occult motifs that permeate Yeats's poetry, a thematic analysis that connects one poem with another and reveals the visionary design at the center of Yeats's work. From the allegorical quest in "The Wanderings of Oisin" to the meditative panorama of "Under Ben Bulben," Unterecker explicates the motifs of Yeats's evolving mythology of a unified self.

In 250 years the mass of pablum we currently pass as literature will be blown away like chaff in the wind.

One of the hard and nourishing kernals left on the threshingroom floor will certainly be Yeats.

These are poems not to be read, but learned by heart.

Among my favorites from this collection (with years of composition) are: "The Stolen Child", "To an Isle in the Water" and "Down by the Salley Gardens" (1889); "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" and "When You Are Old" (1893); "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" (1899); "The Folly of Being Comforted" and "Adam's Curse" (1904); "All Things Can Tempt Me", "Brown Penny" and "To a Child Dancing in the Wind" (1910); and "The Cat and the Moon" and "Two Songs of a Fool" (1919).

I picked up this book of poems as an introduction to Yeats and found it to be wonderful. It contains major works from all of his periods and four plays as well. Highly recommended, for poetry lovers and those with only a passing interest.

I first fell in love with Yeats poetry (specifically "The Song Of Wandering Aengus" before discovering the rest of his poetry) then discovered his plays and prose. I was particularly taken with his version of some classis Irish fairy tales.

This volume, with over a hundred of his poems, eight plays, around a dozen excerpts of autobiographical writing, a similar number of critical writings and half a dozen pieces of prose, covers a marvellous gamut of this mans work in around 600 pages. It is a good size to carry around with you.

The choices taken are good, all my favourite poems and plays are here, my only regret is that none of his fairy tales are here.

I would recommend this volume to anyone who enjoys Yeats poetry and/or plays and wants a good selection of his work in many fields. It is also the perfect introduction to his work for someone you know who might enjoy this marvellous poet.

Seeing his grave this summer was something that stunned my spirit as much as any experience in my life. As a life-long reader of Yeats, I have many of his poems on my shelf. When I want to read as I walk and have a wide selection, this is the book I choose. I'm purchasing this for a dear friend.

When Robert Frost (A not very likable fellow, when you read his biographies, despite his excellent poetry.) visited Yeats in Ireland, he made a comment to the effect that, "It's no wonder he believes in faeries." He was responding to the beautiful, mystical Irish landscape Yeats grew up in. This book, even though you're (probably) not in Ireland when you read it, will have you responding much as Frost did. The peasantry have so much of their pagan ancestry in their blood that, despite their ostensible Catholicism, their deep belief in "the little people" comes out as strong as ever when questioned about it. Reading these anecdotes, some of them grafted directly onto Yeats' early poetry, gives them a power they would not have had you not read this book and realized how "here and now" faeryland was to the common people at the time. The Celtic belief that death (into Faeryland)is far more desirable than birth is made beautifully apparent in this book. Hence, by the way, the celebratory Irish wake. Hence also this lovely poem

Heardst thou not sweet words among That Heaven-resounding minstrelsy? Heardst thou not that those who die Awake in a world of ecstacy? That love, when limbs are interwoven, And sleep when the night of life is cloven, And thought, to the world's dim boudaries clinging, And music, when one beloved is singing, Is death?

These sorts of things, as well as Yeats' poetry, are worth deep consideration in this present world where medicine is deemed omnipotent...and yet, nevertheless, we all die.

As a student, who is hard on cash, I found that this collection of poems by the great Irish author and poet W.B. Yeats was definitely an excellent collection to buy and read. This collection encompasses all of the collections written by the young poet during his early period. Particularly notable are "The Shepherd to His Beloved", "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" and other poems that have become immortal over the years. There are also poems that deal with Irish myths and legends and several poems written as dialogues or plays. This is an excellent collection that will introduce you to the worldd of Yeats if you haven't yet been introduced and further your understanding of this Irish genius.

Gitanjali is a sweet collection of poems and songs from Nobel Prize winning poet Rabindranath Tagore. These are songs that touch on love, faith, truth, life in general. Tagore has written from the heart. The wisdom contained in these works is startling. This is Eastern poetry that is a wonder to behold. Tagore embraces the personal as well as the universal. He encourages his people to transcend. I refer to this book variably over the years. Its alluring beauty has not faded in any way.

"Gitanjali" is a collection of prose poems by Indian author Rabindranath Tagore. The Dover Thrift Edition contains an introductory note on the life of Tagore, who lived from 1861 to 1941. According to this note, Tagore, who wrote poetry in Bengali, translated "Gitanjali" himself into English. The Dover edition also contains a 1912 introduction by William Butler Yeats.

This English version of "Gitanjali" is a series of prose poems that reflect on the interrelationships among the poet/speaker, the deity, and the world. Although Tagore had a Hindu background, the spirituality of this book is generally expressed in universal terms; I could imagine a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim, or an adherent of another tradition finding much in this book that would resonate with him or her.

The language in this book is often very beautiful. The imagery includes flowers, bird songs, clouds, the sun, etc.; one line about "the riotous excess of the grass" reminded me of Walt Whitman. Tagore's language is sensuous and sometimes embraces paradox. Like Whitman and Emily Dickinson, he sometimes seems to be resisting traditional religion and prophetically looking towards a new spirituality.

A sample of Tagore's style: "I surely know the hundred petals of a lotus will not remain closed for ever and the secret recess of its honey will be bared" (from section #98). As companion texts for this mystical volume I would recommend Jack Kerouac's "The Scripture of the Golden Eternity" and Juan Mascaro's translation of the Dhammapada.

The word and the deed were never far from each other in Tagore's life and not surprisingly he advocated the Universal Man. He was a polymath: a poet, fiction writer, dramatist, painter, educator, political thinker, philosopher of science. He was also a genius in music, choreography, architecture, social service and statesmanship. Over six decades Tagore gave the world some 2,500 songs, more than 2,000 paintings and drawings, 28 volumes of poetry, drama, opera, short stories, novels, essays and diaries and a vast number of letters.

I would enthusiatically recommend this book by my favorite author. Like the Psalms of David, Gitanjali is a soothing balm to the spirit. I read this entire book in less than two hours and has been my long-trip travel companion ever since. The introduction to the book by W. B. Yeats is magical and all the poems in this book transcend your imagination. The variety and quality of the poems are unbelievable!