ABSTRACT
The New Poems was W. B. Yeats' last official collection. The collection opens with the great epitaph, "Under Ben Bulben", written in 1928. Written on 21 January 1939, "The Black Tower" was Yeats' last poem, partially dictated by the poet from his deathbed. The poem is enigmatic and has been treated to several varying interpretations. Yeats is writing this poem on the eve of Hitler's full revealing, Kristallnacht having passed in November 1938, and January 1939 being the month in which Hitler threatened the Jews during a Reichstag speech. Yeats awaits the rebirth of the flaming lion with his heart hard-wired to the "One" World-Heart–he who will out-roar the Lionhearts of England perhaps. Yeats returning to that "pure mind" or "Great Mind" in which these images "Grew", the mind purged of "the images of day" that is purified and can be released from the wheel.
