Last Poems

Abstract

When Yeats died he had in print eight new poems, in the December 1938 and January 1939 issues of the London Mercury; five of these had also appeared in America, in The Nation for 10 December 1938 and the January 1939 Atlantic Monthly.¹ A further three poems were at the press in On the Boiler, for which Yeats had read proof.² Eleven additional poems were also unpublished. Six of these were thereafter printed in various periodicals, beginning with “Under Ben Bulben” in the Irish press on 3 February 1939 and ending with “Three Songs to the One Burden” in the Spectator for 26 May 1939. The remaining five poems were first published in Last Poems and Two Plays, issued by the Cuala Press in an edition of five hundred copies on 10 July 1939; this gathering did not contain the poems from On the Boiler. In January of 1940, Macmillan, London, published 2000 copies of Last Poems & Plays; this included the lyrics from both New Poems and Last Poems and Two Plays, as well as the poems from On the Boiler. This volume was also published on 14 May 1940 by Macmillan, New York.