Born in Dublin on June 13, 1865, William Butler Yeats was gifted with prodigious energies, pursuing interests not only in poetry, but in esoteric philosophy, folklore, painting, theater, and politics. Although the elaborate style of his early poems displays a Pre-Raphaelite influence, and his unrequited love for the beautiful Maud Gonne, an ardent revolutionary, permeates the work, Yeats was not the delicate poet retreating from the world to polish his songs in solitude.

Yeats grew up in County Sligo and London. In 1884, while studying art in Dublin,Yeats met the poet George Russell, and together they founded the Dublin Hermetic Society, dedicated to the study of magic and ritual. Simultaneous with the beginnings of his exploration of the occult,Yeats also embraced the cause of Celtic nationalism....
Full biography >>

FEATURED POEMS
To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing
The Magi
The Fisherman
A Prayer for My Daughter

FEATURED CRITICISM
Ezra Pound reviews Yeats' Responsibilities
Alice Corbin Henderson on a reading by Yeats

Photo © ?

 SEARCH