W.B. Yeats
1865–1939 · Irish (Dublin/Sligo/London) · Irish Literary Revival / Early Modernism
Known for: Ireland's greatest poet—'The Second Coming,' 'Easter 1916,' 'Sailing to Byzantium.' Nobel Prize 1923
William Butler Yeats was a mystic, nationalist, senator, and the architect of the Irish Literary Revival. His unrequited love for Maud Gonne inspired decades of poetry. He was obsessed with the occult, automatic writing, and his own system of cyclical history.
He was vain, aristocratic in temperament, and grew more politically conservative with age. His late poetry—written in his 60s and 70s—is among the greatest in the language, combining rage against aging with metaphysical depth. He had a glandular rejuvenation operation at 69 to restore his sexual potency.
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