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William Butler Yeats

Author

Bio

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish poet. Born in Sandymount, Yeats was raised between Sligo, England, and Dublin by John Butler Yeats, a prominent painter, and Susan Mary Pollexfen, the daughter of a wealthy merchant family. He began writing poetry around the age of seventeen, influenced by the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, but soon turned to Irish folklore and the mystical writings of William Blake for inspiration. As a young man he joined and founded several occult societies, including the Dublin Hermetic Order and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, participating in séances and rituals as well as acting as a recruiter. While these interests continued throughout Yeats’ life, the poet dedicated much of his middle years to the struggle for Irish independence. In 1904, alongside John Millington Synge, Florence Farr, the Fay brothers, and Annie Horniman, Yeats founded the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, which opened with his play Cathleen ni Houlihan and Lady Gregory’s Spreading the News and remains Ireland’s premier venue for the dramatic arts to this day. Although he was an Irish Nationalist, and despite his work toward establishing a distinctly Irish movement in the arts, Yeats—as is evident in his poem “Easter, 1916”—struggled to identify his idealism with the sectarian violence that emerged with the Easter Rising in 1916. Following the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, however, Yeats was appointed to the role of Senator and served two terms in the position. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923, and continued to write and publish poetry, philosophical and occult writings, and plays until his death in 1939.

William Butler Yeats Books

The Complete Works of William Butler Yeats book cover

The Complete Works of William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats
Ideas of Good and Evil book cover

Ideas of Good and Evil

William Butler Yeats
The Countess Cathleen book cover

The Countess Cathleen

William Butler Yeats
The Celtic Twilight book cover

The Celtic Twilight

William Butler Yeats
The Wild Swans at Coole book cover

The Wild Swans at Coole

William Butler Yeats
The Secret Rose book cover

The Secret Rose

William Butler Yeats
The Wind Among the Reeds book cover

The Wind Among the Reeds

William Butler Yeats
Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry book cover

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry

William Butler Yeats
Poems book cover

Poems

William Butler Yeats
Rosa Alchemica - Some Ghost Stories from W. B. Yeats (Fantasy and Horror Classics) book cover

Rosa Alchemica - Some Ghost Stories from W. B. Yeats (Fantasy and Horror Classics)

William Butler Yeats
You Can Hear the Ocean book cover

You Can Hear the Ocean

Gene Hult
The Complete Works of William Butler Yeats book cover

The Complete Works of William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats
The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore book cover

The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

William Butler Yeats
Responsibilities and Other Poems book cover

Responsibilities and Other Poems

William Butler Yeats
The Wild Swans at Coole book cover

The Wild Swans at Coole

William Butler Yeats
Irish Fairy and Folk Tales book cover

Irish Fairy and Folk Tales

William Butler Yeats
When You Are Old book cover

When You Are Old

William Butler Yeats
A Vision: The Revised 1937 Edition book cover

A Vision: The Revised 1937 Edition

William Butler Yeats
Stories of Red Hanrahan book cover

Stories of Red Hanrahan

William Butler Yeats
The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume XIII: A Vision book cover

The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Volume XIII: A Vision

William Butler Yeats
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