The Poetry of W B Yeats

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 everyone1 - The Poetry of W B Yeats - An Introduction2 - A Man Young and Old - I - First Love by W B Yeats3 - A Man Young and Old - II - Human Dignity by W B Yeats4 - A Man Young and Old - III - The Mermaid by W B Yeats5 - A Man Young and Old - IV - The Death of the Hare by W B Yeats6 - A Man Young and Old - V - The Empty Cup by W B Yeats7 - A Man Young and Old - VI - His Memories8 - A Man Young and Old - VII - The Friends of His Youth9 - A Man Young and Old - VIII - Summer and Spring10 - A Man Young and Old - IX - The Secrets of the Old11 - A Man Young and Old - X - His Wildness12 - A Man Young and Old - XI - From 'Oedipus at Colonus'13 - A Cradle Song by W B Yeats14 - A Prayer for My Daughter by W B Yeats15 - The Mother of God by W B Yeats16 - Among School Children by W B Yeats17 - The Stolen Child by W B Yeats18 - Long-Legged Fly by W B Yeats19 - The Poet Pleads with the Elemental Powers by W B Yeats20 - The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W B Yeats21 - The Wild Swans at Coole by W B Yeats22 - Leda and the Swan by W B Yeats23 - The Cat and the Moon by W B Yeats24 - Those Dancing Days Are Gone by W B Yeats25 - Imitated From The Japanese by W B Yeats26 - All Things Can Tempt Me by W B Yeats27 - A Statesman's Holiday by W B Yeats28 - The Fascination of What's Difficult by W B Yeats29 - A Drinking Song by W B Yeats30 - He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven by W B Yeats31 - He Bids His Beloved Be at Peace by W B Yeats32 - The Song of Wandering Aengus by W B Yeats33 - The Travail of Passion by W B Yeats34 - The Falling of Leaves by W B Yeats35 - He Thinks of Those Who Have Spoken Evil of His Beloved by W B Yeats36 - Down by the Salley Gardens by W B Yeats37 - Quarrel in Old Age by W B Yeats38 - The Secret Rose by W B Yeats39 - Under Saturn by W B Yeats40 - To Ireland In The Coming Times by W B Yeats41 - I Am of Ireland by W B Yeats42 - The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats43 - Meditations in Time of Civil War - I - Ancestral Homes by W B Yeats44 - Meditations in Time of Civil War - II - My House by W B Yeats45 - Meditations in Time of Civil War - III - My Table by W B Yeats46 - Meditations in Time of Civil War - IV - My Descendants by W B Yeats47 - Meditations in Time of Civil War - V - The Road at My Door by W B Yeats48 - Meditations in Time of Civil War - VI - The Stare's Nest By My Window by W B Yeats49 - Meditations in Time of Civil War - VII - I See Phantoms of Hatred and of the Heart's by W B Yeats50 - From A Full Moon in March - Parnells Funeral by W B Yeats51 - Easter 1916 by W B Yeats52 - Come Gather Round Me, Parnelites by W B Yeats53 - September 1913 by W B Yeats54 - The Ghost of Roger Casement by W B Yeats55 - The Apparitions by W B Yeats56 - Sixteen Dead Men by W B Yeats57 - An Irish Airman Forsees His Death by W B Yeats58 - He Thinks of His Past Greatness When a Part of the Constellations of Heaven by W B Yeats59 - He Remembers Forgotten Beauty by W B Yeats60 - Men Improve with the Years by W B Yeats61 - When You Are Old by W B Yeats62 - He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead by W B Yeats63 - The Wheel by W B Yeats64 - Sailing To Byzantium by W B Yeats65 - Death by W B Yeats