The Poetry of W B Yeats

His early years moved between Ireland and England. By his mid-teens he was writing but those works were described as ‘entirely Un-Irish’. With Ernest Rhys he founded the Rhymers Club. Based at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street it’s best described as a drinking club for performing poets. Yeats later cited them as ‘The Tragic Generation’. By now Yeats was writing and publishing poetry and stories that were profoundly based in Irish folklore.

Yeats is perhaps best described as Ireland’s national poet in addition to being one of the major twentieth-century literary figures of the English tongue. He represents the ‘Romantic poet of modernism,’ with an extraordinary style created from the outward emphasis on the expression of emotions and the extensive use of symbolism, imagery and allusions.

In 1923 his fame was brought to an even wider audience when he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

His personal life was driven by his many relationships in love and by his great interest in oriental mysticism and occultism. Yeats also wrote prose and drama and, as an ardent Nationalist, established himself as a spokesman of the Irish cause and served as an Irish senator for two terms.

W B Yeats died at the Hôtel Idéal Séjour, in Menton, France, on 28th January 1939. He was 73.

In modern times his contribution to literary modernism and to Irish nationalism remains incontestable. His sumptuous poetry elegantly envelopes the reader in a world very few can articulate but all know well. A legacy for everyone

1 - The Poetry of W B Yeats - An Introduction

2 - A Man Young and Old - I - First Love by W B Yeats

3 - A Man Young and Old - II - Human Dignity by W B Yeats

4 - A Man Young and Old - III - The Mermaid by W B Yeats

5 - A Man Young and Old - IV - The Death of the Hare by W B Yeats

6 - A Man Young and Old - V - The Empty Cup by W B Yeats

7 - A Man Young and Old - VI - His Memories

8 - A Man Young and Old - VII - The Friends of His Youth

9 - A Man Young and Old - VIII - Summer and Spring

10 - A Man Young and Old - IX - The Secrets of the Old

11 - A Man Young and Old - X - His Wildness

12 - A Man Young and Old - XI - From 'Oedipus at Colonus'

13 - A Cradle Song by W B Yeats

14 - A Prayer for My Daughter by W B Yeats

15 - The Mother of God by W B Yeats

16 - Among School Children by W B Yeats

17 - The Stolen Child by W B Yeats

18 - Long-Legged Fly by W B Yeats

19 - The Poet Pleads with the Elemental Powers by W B Yeats

20 - The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W B Yeats

21 - The Wild Swans at Coole by W B Yeats

22 - Leda and the Swan by W B Yeats

23 - The Cat and the Moon by W B Yeats

24 - Those Dancing Days Are Gone by W B Yeats

25 - Imitated From The Japanese by W B Yeats

26 - All Things Can Tempt Me by W B Yeats

27 - A Statesman's Holiday by W B Yeats

28 - The Fascination of What's Difficult by W B Yeats

29 - A Drinking Song by W B Yeats

30 - He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven by W B Yeats

31 - He Bids His Beloved Be at Peace by W B Yeats

32 - The Song of Wandering Aengus by W B Yeats

33 - The Travail of Passion by W B Yeats

34 - The Falling of Leaves by W B Yeats

35 - He Thinks of Those Who Have Spoken Evil of His Beloved by W B Yeats

36 - Down by the Salley Gardens by W B Yeats

37 - Quarrel in Old Age by W B Yeats

38 - The Secret Rose by W B Yeats

39 - Under Saturn by W B Yeats

40 - To Ireland In The Coming Times by W B Yeats

41 - I Am of Ireland by W B Yeats

42 - The Second Coming by William Bu