William Butler Yeats
1865–1939
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) was an Irish poet and dramatist, born in Dublin, and a leading figure of the Irish Literary Revival. He co-founded the Abbey Theatre, served as a senator of the Irish Free State and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.
His early poems, such as “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” and “When You Are Old”, draw on Irish legend and his love for Maud Gonne. His later work — “Easter, 1916”, “The Second Coming”, “Sailing to Byzantium” — is among the most powerful poetry of the twentieth century.
Best-known poems
-
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, … -
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths … -
An Indian Song
O Wanderer in the southern weather,
Our isle awaits us; on each lea
The pea-hens dance; in crimson feather …
All poems (13)
- An Indian SongO Wanderer in the southern weather,
- He Wishes for the Cloths of HeavenHad I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
- The Lake Isle of InnisfreeI WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
- The Ragged WoodO, hurry, where by water, among the trees,
- The Rose in the Deeps of his HeartAll things uncomely and broken,
- The Song of the Old MotherI rise in the dawn, and I kneel and blow
- The Sorrow of LoveThe quarrel of the sparrows in the eaves,
- When You Are OldWhen you are old and grey and full of sleep,
- Where My Books goAll the words that I utter,
