William Butler Yeats was born in Sandymount in County Dublin, Ireland on 13th June 1865.

His early years moved between Ireland and England. By his mid-teens he was writing but those works were described as ‘entirely Un-Irish’.  With Ernest Rhys he founded the Rhymers Club. Based at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street it’s best described as a drinking club for performing poets.  Yeats later cited them as ‘The Tragic Generation’.  By now Yeats was writing and publishing poetry and stories that were profoundly based in Irish folklore. 

Yeats is perhaps best described as Ireland’s national poet in addition to being one of the major twentieth-century literary figures of the English tongue. He represents the ‘Romantic poet of modernism,’ with an extraordinary style created from the outward emphasis on the expression of emotions and the extensive use of symbolism, imagery and allusions.

In 1923 his fame was brought to an even wider audience when he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

His personal life was driven by his many relationships in love and by his great interest in oriental mysticism and occultism.  Yeats also wrote prose and drama and, as an ardent Nationalist, established himself as a spokesman of the Irish cause and served as an Irish senator for two terms.

W B Yeats died at the Hôtel Idéal Séjour, in Menton, France, on 28th January 1939.  He was 73.

In modern times his contribution to literary modernism and to Irish nationalism remains incontestable.  His sumptuous poetry elegantly envelopes the reader in a world very few can articulate but all know well.  A legacy for everyone.

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