William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939, Irish writer who is considered among the greatest poets of the 20th century. A founder of the Irish National Theatre Company at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, Yeats wrote many short plays, including The Countess Cathleen. The poetry of Yeats, published in collections such as The Winding Stair, ranges from early love lyrics to the complex symbolist works of his later years. William Butler Yeats won the 1923 Nobel Prize for literature.
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William Butler YeatsThe Passions of an Irish Poet
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
died Jan. 28, 1939, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
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William Butler Yeats's mythology, from which arises the distilled symbolism of his great period, is not always easy to understand, nor did Yeats intend its full meaning to be immediately apparent to those unfamiliar with his thought and the tradition in which he worked. His own cyclic view of history suggested to him a recurrence and convergence of images, so that they become multiplied and enriched; and this progressive enrichment may be traced throughout his work. Among Yeats's dominant images are Leda and the Swan; Helen and the burning of Troy; the Tower in its many forms; the sun and moon; the burning house; cave, thorn tree, and well; eagle, heron, sea gull, and hawk; blind man, lame man, and beggar; unicorn and phoenix; and horse, hound, and boar. Yet these traditional images are continually validated by their alignment with Yeats's own personal experience, and it is this that gives them their peculiarly vital quality. In Yeats's verse they are often shaped into a strong and proud rhetoric and into the many poetic tones of which he was the master. All are informed by the two qualities which Yeats valued and which he retained into old age—passion and joy.
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