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W. B. Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist and writer, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a Nobel laureate, a founder of the Abbey Theatre, and a prominent member of the Irish Literary Revival.
Sep 24, 2024 · Learn about the life and works of William Butler Yeats, one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. Explore his influences, themes, styles, and legacy in this comprehensive article from Britannica.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- William Butler Yeats’s father, John Butler Yeats, was a barrister who eventually became a portrait painter. His mother, formerly Susan Pollexfen, w...
- Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer William Butler Yeats was the preeminent writer of the Irish literary renaissance at the turn of the 20th ce...
- In his early writings, William Butler Yeats evoked a legendary and supernatural Ireland, more pagan than Christian. He hoped to instill pride in th...
May 5, 2017 · A list of ten of the best poems by W. B. Yeats, the Irish poet and Nobel laureate. The poems cover themes such as myth, history, death, love, and the supernatural.
- Early Life
- Education
- Early Career
- Later Career and The Theatre
- Death and Legacy
- Influence from Other Poets
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 13, 1865. His father, John Butler Yeats, studied law and art, and his mother, Susan, was descended from a wealthy merchant family. After his birth, they moved to Merville, Sligo, where Yeats grew up. He often wrote about the area and its influence on his art. Yeats’ siblings, Jack, Elizabeth...
The family moved to England in 1867, where John followed his career as an artist. The children were educated at home before Yeats spent some time at Godolphin School. The Yeats family had to return to Dublin due to financial strains at the end of 1880. The young poet started writing during this period.
During the mid-1880s, perhaps inspired by his father, Yeats studied art at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. His interest in art waned, though, after he published his first collection of poetry in 1885. During this same period, Yeats met several important figures in the British literary scene. These included George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wi...
In 1896, he met Lady Gregory, a patron who would be incredibly influential in his writing. She encouraged him to focus on writing drama and maintaining his Irish identity in his poetry. She, along with writers like J.M. Synge and Padraic Colum, helped to establish the Irish Literary Revival movement. At the turn of the century, in 1902, along with ...
William Butler Yeats died on January 28, 1939, at the Hôtel Idéal Séjour in Menton, France, at the age of seventy-three. He was buried soon after at a small funeral. His final resting place is in County Sligo, where his remains were moved. His life was commemorated in Sligo town with a 1989 statue created by Rowan Gillespie. Today, William Butler Y...
William Butler Yeats was influenced heavily by poets who went before him, such as; William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, and the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Politics influenced Yeats due to his relationship with prominent figures within his circle. Maud Gonne was a political activist and feminist who inspired some of his works, particu...
Learn about the life and works of William Butler Yeats, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. Explore his Irish nationalism, occultism, and artistic craftsmanship in his poems and plays.
Learn about the life and works of William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet and dramatist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. Explore his themes, styles, influences, and legacy in this biographical sketch.
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Apr 2, 2014 · William Butler Yeats was one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
