This magnificent volume collects all of the poetry published during the lifetime of the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats, considered by many to be the finest of his generation. His poems, especially the later works, project a verbal brilliance that few have matched. The volume is also wonderfully evocative of the Irish character, regularly drawing on mythology, politics and history. Yeats had the unique habit of drafting his poems in prose, then laboriously sculpting them into the polished pieces you find here. They seem, finally -- effortless. With an introduction and commentary by editor Richard Finneran.  (IRE34, $20.00)