This study focuses on the ideas of W.B. Yeats and explores his thinking on a wide range of
fundamental subjects. Since opposites are central to Yeats's thought the book begins with an
analysis of this topic. The author then examines Yeats's views on religion sex and politics
again scrutinising the opposites at play. The author considers Yeats's adherence to various
anti-empirical belief systems and the transformation of his view of sex as largely a romantic
concern to his later more 'earthy' perspective. Yeats's fundamentally Tory political
inclinations are examined alongside his regrettable espousal of eugenics. In the second part of
the book Yeats's view of history and of human character in A Vision are analysed. The author
discusses Yeats's two versions of 'Sophocles' and his poems on Byzantium. The final chapter on
Yeats's style stresses the pervasive use of embedded phrases and of terminal questions in the
poems.
