for the Irish & fellow Yeats readers

See, I enjoy Yeats. But he was about as nationalistic as nationalism can be, which, given the political / social climate that he was a part of, is understandable.

I have a tattered paper back of The Celtic Twilight plus early poems which I've read the majority of, but some of references that he makes to Irish history & culture completely escape me. This is intellectually frustrating. It is one thing to study the formal history, even from an American's perspective. in fact, History is something I enjoy regardless of which stage it is. but Yeats, being the proud Irishman he was, has a tendency to make some very off beat, very obscure, allusions to history, that I suppose one would have to be Irish to understand. now, I do have at least a quarter of irish descendancy in my Blood... I grow a red beard ... But, goddammit, I am an American above all. ....

So, here I will link one particularly confounding passage hoping that the right individual may elucidate it for me...


The Celtic Twilight: War


If you have any good sources for information, besides your own knowledge, please share them.

 

yes... "sources of information" ...

particularly, if you happen to know of any good books, not only web sites, of a whole cohesive history of the Isle, please let tell me what they are.

Yes ... I enjoy reading Yeats so much that I've been inspired to learn every thing I can about Ireland simply to enrich my experience of reading more Yeats...


Into the Twilight is one of the greatest poems I have read