Poems eBook

In Dublin, on June 13, 1865, William Butler Yeats was born, one of the greatest English-language poets of the twentieth century, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
When he was only two years old, his parents moved to London, but it was the holidays he spent in Ireland that William would keep as a childhood memory. In 1880, the Yeats family returned to Dublin, where William finished high school. In 1883, he entered the Metropolitan School of Art, beginning to publish his first texts in the "Dublin University Review".
The Yeats family moved to London again in 1887, and there William began his career as a professional writer. He joined the Theosophical Society and quickly integrated himself into the literary life of London, befriending William Morris and W.E. Henley, and also co-founding the Rhymers' Club.
In 1889, Yeats meets Maud Gonne, a rebellious Irish patriot. The unrequited passion he has for Maud leads him to support the Irish nationalist cause. The death in 1891 of Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell discourages Yeats' belief in the nationalist cause, leading him to seek to fill this void with literature, art, poetry, drama and legends ("The Celtic Twilight").
In 1899, William proposes to Maud, but Maud declines. The writer then devoted himself to writing, believing that literature could engender a national unity capable of transfiguring Ireland. In the same year, the "Irish Literacy Theatre" - which Yeats had created in the meantime - was inaugurated, with his play "The Countess Cathleen".
Throughout his life, W.B. Yeats published several volumes of poetry, which always reflected his concern for the culture, history and tradition of his country.
In 1913 Yeats spent a few months in Sussex, where the American poet Ezra Pound was his secretary. Four years later, she married George Hyde-Lees, with whom she had a daughter and a son.
In 1922, with the foundation of the "Irish Free State", Yeats accepted an invitation to the Irish Senate, where he worked for six years.
William Yeats died in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, on January 28, 1939, during a trip to France, where he is buried. Due to the Second World War, it was not until 1948 that his body was transferred to Ireland.