William Butler Yeats
Also known as W. B. Yeats, William Yeats, W.B. Yeats, WBY
Irish poet and playwright (1865–1939)
AI overview
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright who lived from 1865 to 1939 and is widely considered one of the greatest literary figures of the 20th century. His influential works helped shape modern poetry and drama, making him a central figure in Irish literature and culture.
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Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1865
- Died
- 1939
- Works
- 1195
Top works
- The senate speeches of W. B. Yeats
- Quaranta poesie
- The words upon the window-pane
- Irish wonders
- Fairy and folk tales of the Irish peasantry
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 3,084
- Total plays
- 15,613
Article
William Butler Yeats (/jeɪts/ YAYTS; 13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with John Millington Synge and Lady Gregory, founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature and later served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State.
A Protestant of Anglo-Irish descent, Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland. His father practised law and was a portrait painter. He was educated in Dublin and London and spent his childhood holidays in County Sligo. He studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. While in London he became part of the Irish literary revival. His early poetry was influenced by John Keats, William Wordsworth, William Blake and many more. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, lasting roughly from his student days at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin until the end of the 19th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced, modernist and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.