1 h 17 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if longing speaks most clearly through roses, stars, and the sound of wind?
In The Wind Among the Reeds, W. B. Yeats brings unfulfilled love into a world of Irish legend and unseen powers. These short poems draw much of their ache from his love for Maud Gonne, who does not return it as he hopes. Soft sounds carry feelings that plain statements cannot quite hold.
The collection moves between the lover's sorrow and the fairy host of Irish tradition, named in “The Hosting of the Sidhe.” Roses, birds, water, and fire return as symbols, hinting at things the poems leave unnamed. Yeats's notes explain his sources, offering another way into the myths and mysteries behind the verse.
What you’ll discover
- Love beneath the symbols Feel how longing for someone beyond reach gives these brief poems their emotional weight.
- The Irish fairy host Meet the sidhe, the people of hills and mounds in Irish tradition.
- Images that keep returning Follow roses, stars, and birds through poems that suggest more than they name.
- Music in the words Read aloud and notice the soft sounds and rhythms Yeats shapes for the ear.
- Paths into the mystery Explore the notes for a closer look at the sources behind these haunting poems.
Who will love it
For readers who love music in poetry, myth and mystery, and the young Yeats. These poems welcome anyone drawn to Irish folklore, unanswered love and a soft, dreamlike mood.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A young poet between two worlds
- Love and loss under the mask of Aedh
- Myth, faeries and the Hosting of the Sidhe
- Roses, stars, birds and the language of symbols
- Sound, rhythm and how to read aloud
- Themes that last and how the book is judged
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The Wind Among the Reeds
by W. B. Yeats · 1899
Yeats turns unanswered love into music among roses, birds and stars, where Irish myth meets the unseen world.
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In short
The Wind Among the Reeds is a book of poems by the Irish poet W. B.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A young poet between two worlds
By 1899 William Butler Yeats was already a known figure in Irish and London literary circles. He had grown up between Dublin, London and the west of Ireland, where his family held ties to County Sligo. The stories he heard there about fairies, ghosts and old heroes stayed with him all his life.
The Wind Among the Reeds followed earlier books such as The Rose, which appeared in 1893, and several prose works about Irish legend. It was a book of the Celtic Revival, a movement in which writers sought to give Ireland a literature drawn from its own myths rather than from English models. Yeats believed that the old tales still carried living power.
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What is The Wind Among the Reeds about?
It is a collection of poems about longing, mostly unanswered love, set among images from Irish myth, folklore and occult symbolism. Roses, birds, stars and wind recur, and several speakers appear under invented names.
When was The Wind Among the Reeds published?
It was published in 1899, in the late Victorian period, during the Celtic Revival. Yeats wrote the poems over several years in the 1890s, drawing on Irish tradition.
Who are Aedh, Hanrahan and Michael Robartes?
They are invented speakers Yeats used in the poems. Aedh is a devoted, suffering lover, Hanrahan a wandering figure from Yeats's stories, and Robartes a questing, learned voice. They let private feeling become more general.
The author
W. B. Yeats
1865–1939 · Irish poet and playwright
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) was an Irish poet and playwright. He was born in Dublin and lived in Ireland and England. His poetry collections included Poems (1895) and The Wind Among the Reeds (1899). He helped establish Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in 1904. He died in Menton, France.
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