William Butler Yeats

Who is William Butler Yeats?

William Butler Yeats was born in Sandymount, Dublin, in 1865 and became the foremost figure of the Irish Literary Revival. A poet, playwright and cultural nationalist, he co-founded the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1904, giving Ireland its national theatre. His verse evolved from the dreamy Celtic Twilight of his early work toward the taut, symbol-rich modernism of collections such as The Wild Swans at Coole and The Tower. Poems including 'The Second Coming', 'Easter, 1916' and 'Sailing to Byzantium' remain among the most quoted in the English language. His lifelong, unrequited devotion to Maud Gonne and his interest in mysticism deeply shaped his writing. He served as a senator of the Irish Free State and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.

Sources: W. B. Yeats, The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1933) · R. F. Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life, 2 vols. (1997, 2003) · Nobel Prize in Literature 1923 (Nobel Foundation)