Any lover of Irish literature will tell you: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is one of the great poets who have left their mark on the world. His talent and his works were such that he remains one of Ireland’s great literary figures. A great name in Irish poetry: still taught at university, and still seducing the hearts of literary enthusiasts.
William Butler Yeats – Public domain
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 13, 1865. Son of painter John Butler Yeats, William grew up in a family where artistic values were widely encouraged.
In 1867, the Yeats family moved from Dublin to County Sligo.
Yeats was only 2 years old at the time, and the few years he spent there left a lasting impression on the poet, who would later strive to transcribe the love and nostalgia evoked by this land so dear to him…
A few years later, the Yeats family was forced to move to London, to facilitate William’s father’s career prospects. The move was a real uprooting for William, who much prefers the wilds of Sligo to the streets of London…
The Abbey Theatre – picturesbyJOE
In 1877, William Butler Yeats studied at Godolphin School, before returning to Dublin in 1880 following his family’s financial problems. He entered the Erasmus Smith High School and discovered 2 passions: writing and politics.
He surrounded himself with Dublin’s most influential writers and artists, and developed a fervent passion for the nationalist cause, which was all the rage in Ireland. From 1884, he studied art at Dublin’s Metropolitan School of Art, and took up acting.
Together with other writers, he founded a new literary circle known as the “Irish Literary Revival”. On December 27 1904, this group opened a theater in Dublin called “Theatre”. The plays by Yeats and Lady Gregory are performed here. It was at this time that Yeats met Maud Gonne, a woman deeply committed to the nationalist cause and a lover of the theater.
He soon fell madly in love with her…. without her giving in to his desire for a life together. She gave him the inspiration he needed for his poems, while he introduced her to the occult, a science that particularly appealed to him.
But William Butler Yeats was much more in love than Gonne, and the latter decided to marry John McBride, an Irish Brigade soldier, in 1903.
William Butler Yeats – Public domain
Yeats then decided to continue writing, drawing on the mythology of Irish heroes and applying it to the nationalist cause. He constantly borrows symbols from Irish history and religion to illustrate his points. His infatuation with politics is particularly feverish in some of his poems.
But writing didn’t seem to be enough for Yeats, who decided to become a senator in the Irish Free State Senate (from 1922 to 1928)… His contributions are highly appreciated, and Yeats enjoys widespread popularity in the Irish political and cultural milieu. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and his peers showered him with praise.
In 1930, however, William Butler Yeats decided to retire from politics, leaving Dublin for the South of France. He lived there peacefully for 9 years, then died in 1939 in Roquebrune-Cap Martin. At his request, he is buried in County Sligo, in Drumcliff churchyard.
Even today, he’s considered a great poet, who sublimated the Sligo region with his masterly poems. His works are taught all over the world, including in Irish universities.
