SOURCE: "The Poetry of W. B. Yeats," in Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 6, No. 1, April 1960, pp. 3-24.

In the following excerpt, Winters criticizes selections from The Collected Poems, finding fault with many aspects of them including Yeats's philosophy, his use of symbolism, his elevated style, and the rhythm of his lines.

We have been told many times that we do not have to take the ideas of Yeats seriously in order to appreciate his poetry; but if this is true, Yeats is the first poet of whom it has ever been true. We need to understand the ideas of Donne and of Shakespeare in order to appreciate their works, and we have to take their ideas seriously in one sense or another, and it is possible to take their ideas seriously much of the time. A great deal of scholarly work has been done of their ideas, and some...