Ireland's OWN: History
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)*
Dublin-born poet and dramatist
Yeats was one of the greatest 20th century poets and in 1923 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
He was educated in Dublin and London, but spent much of his boyhood with his maternal grandparents in Sligo where the local scenery, legends and folklore had a lasting influence on his life and work.
Yeats’s poems such as The Wanderings of Oisin and The Rose celebrate the Irish landscape of his boyhood and explore pagan Irish themes. The lyrical, nostalgic beauty of these poems is also evident in The Lake Isle of Innisfree — which came into the poet’s mind as he walked in a London street.
Yeats was also interested in mysticism, founding a society in Dublin to study Hinduism and Asian religions.
In 1889, he met Irish nationalist Maud Gonne and she drew him into the independence movement.
In 1898 he met the Nationalist playwright and mythographer Lady Augusta Gregory and spent his summers at her home at Coole Park in Galway. In 1899 the Irish Literary Theatre — which later became the Abbey Theatre — performed his The Countess Cathleen as its first venture.
Following Irish independence Yeats became a member of the new Irish Senate. He died in France and in 1948 his body was returned to Ireland and laid to rest in Sligo.
*From Duff, L. "London’s Irish history," The Irish Post, 17 Nov. 2003
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