W.B. Yeats

1865-1939, Irish poet and playwright

Early years and education

William Butler Yeats was born on 13 June 1865 in Dublin as the eldest son of John Butler Yeats, a well-known Irish painter. His mother, Susan Mary Pollexfen, was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Yeats spent his early years in County Sligo (Western Ireland) and London, where he attended the Godolphin School in Hammersmith. His family moved back to Dublin in 1880, where Yeats then went to Erasmus Smith High School. In 1883, Yeats enrolled in the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin for two years. In 1887, his family moved back to London again. The same year, W.B. Yeats started writing his first poems.

Literary Career

In London W.B. Yeats became acquainted with many famous writers such as Oscar Wilde, William Morris, George Bernard Shaw and W.E. Henley. Yeats became known as a Celtic poet who believed in a distinctive Irish, national culture. He drew from sources of Irish mythology and folklore and was fascinated by mysticism and occult. His early poems, such as "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (1888) and "The Wind among the Reeds" (1899) demonstrate this.

In 1899, Yeats and his close friend and patron Lady Augusta Gregory founded the Irish Literary Theatre (later Abbey Theatre), which came to represent the centre of cultural renaissance in Dublin. The first play performed at the theatre was Yeats's The Countess Cathleen (1899). In 1904, the Abbey Theatre opened. In the following years, Yeats put all his creative energy into theatre. Among Yeats most famous productions wereThe Land of Heart’s Desire (1894), Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), The Hour Glass( 1903), The King’s Treshold (1904), On Baile’s Strand (1905) and Deirdre (1907).

Yeats's international reputation is based on his late verse, written in the 1920s. His major achievements include “The Wild Swans at Coole” (1917), Four Plays for Dancers (1921), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair (1929), and Last Poems and Two Plays (1940). W.B. Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923.

In 1917, Yeats married Bertha Georgie Hyde-Lees and they had two children (Anna and William Michael).

During his life, Yeats was also interested and actively involved in politics and appointed senator of the Irish Free State in 1923 (he served for five years).

W.B. Yeats died on 28 January 1939 at the age of 73 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France.

Sources

Foster, R. F. "Yeats, William Butler (1865–1939)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2011. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37061>.

"William Butler Yeats - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 30 Nov 2011.<http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/yeats.html>.

"William Butler Yeats". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2011. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/652421/William-Butler-Yeats>.