William Butler Yeats

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a part of a secret society? How about a paranormal research organization? Have you ever wondered what marks the difference between a spirit and a soul? Poet and author William Butler Yeats (also known as W. B. Yeats) engaged in all of this and more as a young aspiring author, before becoming so popular as to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. Yeats is an English-language poet who had a deep interest in the spiritual and profound existence of the human experience and influenced the work of many poets we study today.

William Butler Yeats Autobiography

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish poet, playwright, and author born Sandymount, Ireland in 1865. At the time of Yeats' birth, Ireland was a part of the sovereign state known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Yeats is an English-language author, best known for his interest in symbolist poetry and the occult. As Yeats aged, his poetry moved away from symbolist poetry and began to explore the more mundane aspects of life in Ireland, taking a more politically-informed view of the world. Yeats is a poet who had major influences on pushing English poetry towards modernism.

William Butler Yeats' biography

W. B. Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland in 1865 to parents John Butler Yeats and Susan Mary Pollexfen. Yeats' father was studying law at the time of his birth, but later switched to art studies at the Heatherly School of Fine Art. Yeats' mother was the daughter of a wealthy merchant family and grew up in the coastal town of County Sligo, Ireland, where Yeats' family (including his brother and two sisters) soon relocated after his birth. W. B. Yeats came to know County Sligo as his childhood home and often refers back to it in his poetry, painting images of coastal cliffs and other natural features near the area he grew up.

Fig. 1 - Yeats was born to a wealthy and artistic family.

Yeats' family moved around several more times, homeschooling him and his siblings at times, and attending various schools in cities such as London and Dublin. The Yeats family lived in England for several years where W. B. Yeats did not distinguish himself academically. He had a fascination with several niche subjects such as zoology and biology but did not do well in the traditional classroom setting, perhaps as a result of his mother's homeschooling. He was interested at a young age in Irish folklore, and this came to influence his writing and his later fascination with the occult.

Yeats' early years as a poet

In his early years of as a poet, William Butler Yeats joined and co-founded several writer and supernatural societies. Two of the more famous societies he was a part of include The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (of which he was a lifelong member) and the paranormal society, The Ghost Club. Yeats went on to co-found The Rhymers' Club with his friend Ernest Rhys, a group of London writers who would meet regularly in taverns to discuss their work. Yeats later tried to immortalize The Rhymers' Club in his book Autobiographies of William Butler Yeats, published in 1938.

William Butler Yeats published several of his well-known poems during this stage of his life, many of which he later disowned as his interests shifted away from spirituality, occultism, and astrology, and more towards a political nature. Yeats began writing poetry at age 17 and had his first three works published in the Dublin University Review. A few of his major influencers at this time were Percy Bysshe Shelley and Edmund Spenser.

Fig. 2 - Yeats' fascination with the supernatural found its way into his early poetry.

As he aged, he quickly became a fan of William Blake, attributing much of his influence to him. Yeats' style changed quite a bit over the course of his lifetime, and he went on to concentrate less on his interest in the paranormal and occult (though this interest remained present throughout his life) and quickly transitioned to an interest in symbolist poetry.

Adult life

In 1889, as Yeats aged and became more politically and socially active in Ireland, he met an Irish nationalist by the name of Maud Gonne who quickly became the subject of his romantic and literary interest. While Gonne and Yeats never married, he had an obsessive and unrequited love for her for the better part of his life.

Gonne was hesitant to marry Yeats, partially due to his lack of engagement with the Irish nationalist cause and went on to reject his proposals of marriage several times. She was then married to a more renowned Irish nationalist, Major John MacBride. Their marriage fell apart rapidly, with Gonne petitioning for divorce and receiving a separation as well as custody of their child. Soon after her marriage to MacBride became rocky, she began visiting Yeats in London and after several years of dancing around the concept of being together, they consummated their relationship in 1908.

Even after their love affair in London, Yeats and Gonne did not marry, though almost 20 years after their union, Yeats wrote of the experience in his poem "A Man Young and Old":

Yeats and Gonne agreed that a relationship should not be pursued between the two of them and are both known for writing letters to the other praising their agreed upon abstinence after their one night together. Gonne, however, continued to heavily influence Yeats' life and work. As his poetry became more and more influenced by French Symbolism, he became more and more involved in the Irish Literary Revival movement (also known as the Celtic Revival).

In 1916, at the age of 51, William Butler Yeats married 25-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees. He desired to have heirs and, though he'd had many love affairs throughout his life, he had not yet had children. Despite their age difference, Hyde-Lees and Yeats loved one another and had two children, Anne and Michael. Hyde-Lees reawakened Yeats' love of the supernatural and they experimented with automatic writing together.

The Abbey Theatre

Yeats was also deeply involved in the creation of the Abbey Theatre, located in Dublin, Ireland. Yeats, one of his lovers Lady Gregory, George Moore, and Edward Martyn founded the Irish Literary Theatre. The Irish Literary Theatre was created to inspire hope among those located in Ireland, and contributed greatly to the Celtic Revival movement. The Abbey Theatre was borne of the Irish Literary Theatre and was founded in 1904. On the opening night of the Theatre, Yeats' work Cathleen ni Houlihan premiered, along with Lady Gregory's Spreading the News. The Abbey Theatre was one of Yeats' crowning achievements and he remained on the board and as a playwright until his death in 1939.

Fig. 3 - Although he was not very successful as a playwright, Yeats loved the theater and was a founding member of the Abbey Theatre.

William Butler Yeats death

W. B. Yeats died in 1939 after a lifetime of literary and political accomplishment. His health had been in decline for some time, and his wife, Georgie, and their son, Michael, were with him. He was prescribed morphine for his ailments and died peacefully and quietly on a sunny afternoon at the age of 73. He requested that his body be brought back to Sligo, Ireland. On his tombstone is an epitaph from one of his final poems, "Under Ben Bulben":

William Butler Yeats poems

William Butler Yeats published many poems during his lifetime, including more than 30 poetry collections. Some of his more famous works are included in the table below, though this is not an exhaustive list. Note the heavy reliance on symbolism and natural imagery in these poems. Yeats became known for referencing the supernatural in his poetry, but he also used his political voice to speak out in favor of Irish nationalism. Yeats won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, "for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation."¹

William Butler Yeats: literary criticism

W. B. Yeats was also a well-known literary critic. He had specific life and writing values that he expressed through his literary criticism, and we have knowledge of a lot of his criticism, today. Yeats was very outspoken against opinions he thought were incorrect and sought to explore the aesthetic and philosophical principles of writing.

Yeats was an avid critic of Irish propaganda and believed that literary works should be rooted in a historical and societal context. His criticism is an important contribution to his body of work because it illustrates the interconnectedness between art forms such as poetry and propaganda. He believed that art forms were in constant conversation with one another, and it is clear that his criticism aided in his writing as a result of his intense devotion to conversation between works.

William Butler Yeats: quotes

Yeats' work has been popular amongst English speakers for over a century, and he has many famous quotations regarding everything from the occult to poetry to Irish politics. As a popular writer during his lifetime, there are many quotes that stand out as influential in history. One of his most famous quotes is from his poem 'Easter, 1916' and states:

Yeats is best known for his quotes describing the intersection between reality and spirituality, concentrating on the symbolic nature of life. The spiritual considerations found in 'Easter, 1916' lend themselves to dramatic statements such as the quotation above, and these hard hitters are quotations that Yeats became known for throughout his life.

Yeats is also known for his interest in natural imagery and connection. In his poem, 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree', Yeats recounts a place of natural beauty from his hometown of County Sligo. Several famous lines from "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" state:

These lines are good examples of natural imagery influenced by the Irish countryside and demonstrate the symbolic nature of Yeats' writing.

Another example of a famous quotation that we still recite today is from Yeats' poem 'Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven' (1899). Yeats was known to write lines that influenced the perception of the public, particularly in Ireland. "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" is reminiscent of Yeats' protestant/Anglican roots and expresses political implications for the silencing of voices. The lines are thus:

Yeats was an avid user of the long metaphor and maintained a deep relationship with symbolism throughout his career.

William Butler Yeats: symbolism

W. B. Yeats is very well-known for his use of symbolism. Throughout Yeats' life and all of the influences he had on his work, he maintained a constant connection to the supernatural and such philosophies. Some of the influences that Yeats incorporated into his symbolism include the occult, folklore, Biblical voices, and connection to nature.

Yeats' work leans heavily on the literary devices of symbolism and focuses on connecting specific images with broader philosophical themes. In his poem 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree,' Yeats illustrates a peaceful island where the speaker of the poem goes to pursue their inner peace. Through the language of the poem, we read only the description of nature as seen through the lens of the speaker, but it holds a deeper meaning. The poem ends with this quatrain:

This quatrain is a good example of how the symbol of Innisfree can indicate the eternal motion of night and day. The speaker feels deeply connected to the symbol of the isle as representative of inner peace but references its cyclical nature. The speaker also says they can "hear it in the deep heart's core" a symbol of inner peace being constantly carried within and referenced throughout the poem.

Fig. 4 - Innisfree reveals the eternal cycle of day to night.

Yeats also spent a good part of his poetic career circling the notions of spirituality as explored through Protestantism and the Anglican church. In his poem 'The Second Coming', we can see frequent uses of Christian imagery to describe the speaker's horror at an apocalyptic future:

'The Second Coming' provides a great example of the ways in which Yeats builds upon well-known symbols to create a feeling of horror for the speaker.

¹ William Butler Yeats – Facts. NobelPrize.org. February 22, 2022.