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William Butler Yeats was born near Dublin in 1805; his childhood was spent mainly in London. His father and brothers were painters, and Yeats himself studied art for a time. He became, as a young man a member of the poetic set in London in the 1890s; was a keen worker in the Renaissance of the Irish theatre in the 1900’s and returned for a while to literary London before the First World War. By 1925 he was widely recognized as a major poet, and was still developing. He was also a member of the Irish Senate and a ‘public man’ (his own words) of Ireland. He died in France in 1939.
Three Women in Yeats’ Life
It is important to know a little about the three women in Yeats’s life. Maud Gonne, a beautiful but strong-minded girl with whom he fell in love and remained in love for many years (she appears often in his poetry, even in later years when he is offended by her intellectual and political arrogance, which he saw as unwomanly); Lady Gregory, and aristocratic patron of the arts, who collaborated with Yeats on the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and other projects; and his wife, whom he married when he was fifty-two and who brought a fulfilment and stability into his work which it had previously lacked.
PRINCIPAL WORKS OF W.B. YEATS
Poems
Mosada : A Dramatic Poem, (1880)
The Wanderings of Oisbi, (1889) Poems, (1895)
The Wind Among the Reeds, (1889)
In the Seven Woods, (1903)
The Green Helmet and Other Poems, (1910)
Responsibilities, (1916)
The Wild Swans at Coole, (1917)
Michael Robartes and the Dancer, (1920)
Later Poems, (1922)
The Cat and the Moon and Certain Poems, (1924) The Tower, (1928)
The Winding Stair,(1933)
Collected Poems, (1933)
The King of the Great Tower, (1934)
A Full Moon in March, (1935)
Last Poems and Plays, (1940)
Collected Poems, (1949)
Plays
The Countess Kathleen, (1892)
The Land of Heart's Desire, (1894)
The Shadowy Waters, (1900)
Cathleen in Houlihan, (1902)
Where There is Nothing, (1902)
The Hour Glass, (1903)
The Pot of Broth, (1904)
The King's Threshold, (1904)
Deirdre, (1907)
The Unicorn from the Stars and Other Plays, (1908) (with Lady Gregory)
Plays for an Irish Theatre, (1911)
Four Plays for Dancers, (1921)
Wheels and Butterflies, (1934)
The Herne’s Egg, (1938)
Collected Plays, (1952)