"The Playboy of the Western World", J.M. Synge

The Playboy of the Western World is the most fun I've had reading a play in a good while. I often find good plays that don't read well, but this one certainly does - the lively, manic characters combined with the flowery Irish peasant-English makes it hard to put down. The language he uses is remarkable: take Christy's opening speech from Act II.

"The Countess Cathleen" by W. B. Yeats

You've gotta love Yeats.

Tell them who walk upon the floor of peace
That I would die and go to her I love;
The years like great black oxen tread the world,
And God the herdsman goads them on behind,
And I am broken by their passing feet.