W. B. Yeats

Irish poet and playwright (1865–1939)

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Lived 1865–1939, aged 74

WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
113 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1865–1939
Aged 74
Known for
Oedipus Rex
1957

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

The Irish poet who bent English verse toward myth and occult geometry, then hardened it into something colder and more real — a voice that moved from dreamy Pre-Raphaelite mists to the blunt edge of politics and aging, all while building a national theatre and winning the Nobel.

Biography

About

William Butler Yeats was born in Sandymount in 1865, a Protestant of Anglo-Irish descent whose father painted portraits and practised law. Educated in Dublin and London, he spent childhood summers in County Sligo and studied poetry early, drawn to Irish legend and the occult. His earliest verse, published in 1889, moved slowly and dreamily, indebted to Spenser, Shelley, and the Pre-Raphaelites. By 1897 he had become chief playwright for the Irish Literary Theatre; three years later his poetry began to shift — more physical, more rooted, more political, shedding the transcendental for cyclical…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from W. B. Yeats

W. B. Yeats

said1914

In dreams begins responsibility.

— Epigraph to the book Responsibilities (1914); this was later adapted as the title of the story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" (1937) by

W. B. Yeats

said1908

The friends that have it I do wrongWhenever I remake a songShould know what issue is at stake, It is myself that I remake.

— The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, II, preliminary poem (1908)

W. B. Yeats

said27 Feb 1895

The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth.

— Letter to the Editor, Dublin Daily Express (27 February 1895)

W. B. Yeats

said1892

The years like great black oxen tread the world, And God the herdsman goads them on behind, And I am broken by their passing feet.

— The Countess Cathleen, last lines (1892)

W. B. Yeats

said3 Feb 1889

Words are always getting conventionalized to some secondary meaning. It is one of the works of poetry to take the truants in custody and bring them back to their right senses.

— Letter to Ellen O'Leary (3 February 1889)

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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