Life and Nature - Scf - State College of Florida

W.B. Yeats
W.B. Yeats, or William Butler Yeats, was born in Sandymount, County Dublin, Ireland on
June 13, 1865. He spent some time in England as a child, but always had Ireland in his heart
throughout the rest of his life. Because of that love, Yeats earned the honor of being called “the
preeminent Irish poet of the twentieth century” by Alison Booth in The Norton Introduction to
Literature (1171). Booth also believes that he is “regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets in the
English language” (1171). Yeats attended art school to further embrace his interest in “Irish history,
folklore, [mythology], and politics” (1171) before moving on to writing “dreamy and ethereal” poetry
(1171). His involvement with Irish nationalism caused his work to become more “tighter, concrete,
direct, and passionate” (1171). In a way Irish nationalism shaped Yeats and the work he produced.
Other influences on his work were Maude Gonne (an actress), Friedrich Nietzsche (German
philosopher), and Ezra Pound (American Poet). Along with
supporting Irish nationalism, Yeats was a part of the Irish, or Celtic,
Revival to “rejuvenate…Irish literature and culture” (1171). His culture
was an important part of his life as an Irishman, which is why “his early
poetry and plays [drew] heavily on the oral folk traditions” (1171). As
the years passed and Modernist movement grew, Yeats became more
and more interested in subjects outside of Ireland, “including WWI, the
spiritualist movement, and… psychology” (1171). He also took a very
modernist approach when he tried to “rejuvenate the Protestant
Christianity of his ancestors,” which was a common reaction to artists
of the time towards the materialistic and rationalistic spirit of the age
(1171-1172).