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Summary

William Butler Yeats was born in Sandymount in County Dublin, Ireland on 13th June 1865. 
 
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

Duration: about 1 hour (01:22:47)
Publishing date: 2021-01-05; Unabridged; Copyright Year: — Copyright Statment: —

• Poetry & Theatre