William Butler Yeats: Man of Glory

            William Butler Yeats is commonly recognized as one of the greatest poets of the British literature..

            William Butler Yeats was born on June 13, 1865 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, John Butler Yeats, was a lawyer, as well as a portrait painter and his mother, Susan Mary Pollexfen, was from a wealthy family. When he was two years old, he and his family moved to London, England to study the arts. Once there, he attended the Godolphin School in Hammersmith. Shortly after his completion of the school, the Yeats family moved back to Dublin. In Dublin, Yeats attended Erasmus Smith High School and spent many hours at his fathers’ side in his art studio. In 1884, he attended the Metropolitan School of Art; there he composed many of his first poems which were published in the Dublin University Review. In 1886, his first dramatic poem, Mosada was privately published.

            Now in his early twenties, he moved to Bedford Park in London. Bedford Park was a major gathering place for writers and artists. It was here where he got the opportunity to discuss his views and beliefs with other intellectualities. In 1890, he founded the London-Rhymers Club along with Ernest Rhys. He often found himself homesick and wrote the poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” in dedication to his home country of Ireland and spent many summers in Slino. Back in London, he kept very busy; between meetings at the club, to research of natural history for many of his Irish collaborations. In 1889, Yeats met his muse and inspiration of unrequited love, Maud Gonne.

            In 1894, Yeats met Lady Augusta Gregory; the tow of them founded the Irish Theatre, which later became the Abbey Theatre. The next few years, Yeats devoted much of his time to the Irish Theatre and wrote many plays. He also went on his first lecture tour of America. He and his sisters started the Cuala Press in 1904 which printed seventy titles; forty-eight which had been W.B. Yeats’. The Cuala Press closed in 1946. While involved in the Cuala Press, Yeats met Georgie Hyde Lees in 1911; they married 6 years later on October 20, 1917. They had two children together; Anne, born in 1919 and Michael, born in 1921. Yeats’ wrote poems for the birth of both of his children titled, “a Prayer for my Daughter” written for Anne and “a Prayer for my Son” written for Michael.

            In September of 1916, Yeats wrote the poem “Easter.” 

In 1996, Yeats’ autobiography titled Reveries over Childhood and Youth made its debut. His second volume came about in 1922 titled The Trembling of the Veil. In 1922, Yeats received and honorary degree from the Trinity College in Dublin. That same year he was elected to a seat in the Irish Senate. A year later, Yeats received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He composed the Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892-1935 and continued to work on essays and poetry.

            Many critics felt that William Butler Yeats did not live wholly in the real world. That he lived his life within his own imagination. I.A. Richards, in Science and Poetry, commented on Yeats fascination with magic; he wrote,

Now he turns to a world of symbolic phantasmagoria about which he is desperately                  uncertain. He is uncertain because he has adopted as a technique of inspiration the use of trance, of dissociated phases of consciousness, and the revelations given in  

these dissociated states are unsufficiently (sic) connected with normal experience.  

What Richards is saying is, Yeats finds all of his inspiration through a technique all his own full of trances and various phases of streams of consciousness. He created a complex dream world that only he can access and understand to create his muse.

            William Butler Yeats died on January 28, 1939 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France where he was also buried. He lived to be seventy-three years old. In 1948 he was re-interred in Drumcliff churchyard, Country Slingo, Ireland “under bare Bun Bulben’s head.” Inscribed on his gravestone, it says, Cast a cold Eye, On Life, On Death. He also has a sculpture standing on Stephen Street in Slingo featuring quotes of his poetry. Before his death, Yeats wrote his final poem titled, “The Black Tower.”

corys exgirlfriend is sitting at our lunch table now and its weird. and im afraid something might stem from this. like i might lose him to HER! and i have doubts of that happening but still scary. but thats all i wanted to say. im going to go try to beat bubble struggle 2 on level 20. lol

yeah so right as were were about to get out of lunch this one really mean lunch lady took cory!. like she took his money and put it on his account. which she wasnt suposed to do. and then she was just retarted. like idk. but she took him and then he didnt come out of the cafeteria and i think there may be a possibility that he got in trouble because she pissed im off. when he came out of the lunch line he kicked the door. and now she said something to him about it well at least i think he did. she may have given him his money back because she had him put his number in but i dont know. i hope he doesnt get in trouble though. that would suck. because then he would be in a bad mood all weekend and that is not a good thing. id rather him be happy. but im going to go play some stupid games on the computer now.