Image of William Butler Yeats

Timeline

Lifetime: 1865 - 1939 Passed: ≈ 85 years ago

Title

Poet, Dramatist, Prose Writer

Country/Nationality

Ireland
Wikipedia

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an English-language Irish poet, dramatist, prose writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others.

Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland, and educated there and in London. He was a Protestant and member of the Anglo-Irish community. He spent childhood holidays in County Sligo and studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900, his poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Books by William Butler Yeats

The Wanderings of Oisin Cover image

The Wanderings of Oisin

Poetry Fiction
Epic Narrative

The Wanderings of Oisin is a poignant and beautifully written poem that explores themes of love, loss, and the passage of time. It remains one of Yeats's most beloved works and is considered a classic of Irish literature.

The Wild Swans at Coole Cover image

The Wild Swans at Coole

Poetry
Nationalism

The Wild Swans at Coole is the name of two collections of poetry by W. B. Yeats, published in 1917 and 1919.

In the Seven Woods  Cover image

In the Seven Woods

Poetry
Twentieth Century Marriage Drama Romance Poems

In the Seven Woods: Being Poems Chiefly of the Irish Heroic Age is a volume of poems by W. B. Yeats, published in 1903 by Elizabeth Yeats's Dun Emer Press, the first edited by this publishing house. Dun Emer published two editions of the book in 190...

The Wind Among the Reeds  Cover image

The Wind Among the Reeds

Poetry
Twentieth Century Imagery Literature Poems Folk lore

'The wind among the reeds', published in 1899, by critics' opinion is the main achievement of his early works. Imagery of Yeats' poetry at this time is filled with characters of Celtic mythology and folklore.

John Sherman and Dhoya  Cover image

John Sherman and Dhoya

Mythology Novel
Short Story Single Author Collections Humanity Seduction

In 1891, Yeats published "John Sherman", a novella, and "Dhoya", a Celtic mythologic story. Ganconagh, Yeats’s nom de plume for this work is the name of a male faerie in Irish mythology that is known for seducing human women.

J. M. Synge and the Ireland of His Time Cover image

J. M. Synge and the Ireland of His Time

Memoir
Play History Tradition Analysis Culture Innovations Irish Folklore

Step into the captivating world of Irish literature and culture with "J.M. Synge and the Ireland of His Time" by the legendary William Butler Yeats. Delve into the life and works of John Millington Synge, the playwright who brought the soul of Irelan...

Song of Wandering Aengus Cover image

Song of Wandering Aengus

LibriVox volunteers bring you eighteen different readings of The Song of Wandering Aengus, by Irish poet William Butler Yeats, to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. This is Yeats in his faerie folklore vein, and he paints an evocative picture of a beautifu...

Where My Books Go Cover image

Where My Books Go

LibriVox volunteers bring you thirteen different readings of the short poem Where My Books Go by William Butler Yeats, a weekly poetry project. (Summary by Annie Coleman)

Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven Cover image

Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

LibriVox volunteers bring you nine different recordings of Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, by William Butler Yeats. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of December 10th, 2006.

Magi Cover image

Magi

LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 different recordings of The Magi, by William Butler Yeats to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of January 7th, 2007.

Easter, 1916 Cover image

Easter, 1916

LibriVox volunteers bring you 4 recordings of Easter, 1916 by William Butler Yeats. This was the fortnightly poetry project for April 5th, 2009.

When You Are Old Cover image

When You Are Old

LibriVox volunteers bring you 29 recordings of When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats. This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 3rd, 2010.

All Things Can Tempt Me Cover image

All Things Can Tempt Me

LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of All Things Can Tempt Me by W. B. Yeats, from The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1912). This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 17th, 2010.

Drinking Song Cover image

Drinking Song

LibriVox volunteers offer you 12 different recordings of A Drinking Song from The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1912) by William Butler Yeats. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of April 11th, 2010.

Fiddler of Dooney Cover image

Fiddler of Dooney

LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 recordings of The Fiddler of Dooney by William Butler Yeats. This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 4th 2011William Butler Yeats was a notable Irish poet and playwright. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Lit...

Crossways Cover image

Crossways

The first collection by Irish-born poet William Butler Yeats. Many decades before his mysterious and austere Modernist verse earned him a Nobel prize, Yeats achieved renown as one of the last major poets in the High Romantic tradition. These poems sh...

Celtic Twilight Cover image

Celtic Twilight

I have desired, like every artist, to create a little world out of the beautiful, pleasant, and significant things of this marred and clumsy world, and to show in a vision something of the face of Ireland to any of my own people who would look where...

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry Cover image

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry

This is a collection of Fairy and Folk tales. The poet William Butler Yeats collected them from around the Western part of Ireland and translated them near the end of the 1800s. - Summary by Michele Eaton

Deep-Sworn Vow Cover image

Deep-Sworn Vow

This is the weekly poem for the week of 10.01.2016. Have fun. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

Dolls Cover image

Dolls

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, his earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poem...

Tower Cover image

Tower

The Tower is a short collections of poems by William Butler Yeats published in 1928 not long after he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. The title refers to Ballylee Castle, an old Norman tower in the west of Ireland which Yeats purchased in 19...