William Butler Yeats, the great writer was the son of John Butler Yeats, the famous painter. William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 13th, 1865. He grew up in County Sligo, the homeland of his parents and in London.
Irish legends attracted Yeats and those became features of his first phase of poetry. The first phase of his poetry came to an end by the start of the twentieth century. Edmund Spenser and Shelley inspired the early slow paced poetry of Yeats.
‘The Island of Statues: An Arcadian Faery Tale in Two Acts’, his first important work was written in this manner. ‘Mosada: A Dramatic Poem’, which had a print run of 100 copies, was financed by his father. ‘The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems’ appeared in1889. ‘The Secret Rose’ and ‘The Wind among the Reeds’ are his early poems. These poems were essentially meditations on love or mystical subjects.
His friend, Althea Gyles, illustrated the covers of these books. He founded the Abbey Theatre.
Yeats was an Irish senator for two terms. He was a great figure of English literature. William Butler Yeats won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. Yeats passed away in 1939, aged seventy three.