William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was born in Dublin into an Irish Protestant family. His early years Yeats spent in London and Sligo, a beautiful county on the west coast of Ireland, where his mother had grown and which he later depicted in his poems. In 1881 the family returned to Dublin. As a writer Yeats made his debut in 1885, when he published his first poems in The Dublin University Review. In 1887 the family returned to Bedford Park, and Yeats devoted himself to writing. In 1889 Yeats met his great love, Maud Gonne (1866-1953), who was an actress and Irish revolutionary who became a major landmark in the poet’s life and imagination. Through Mauds influence Yeats joined the revolutionary organization Irish Republican Brotherhood. In 1896 Yeats returned to live permanently in his home country. He reformed Irish Literary Society, and then the National Literary Society in Dublin, which aimed to promote the New Irish Library. Lady Gregory first saw W.B. Yeats 1894. Their relationship started in 1897 and led to the founding of the Irish Literary Theatre, which became the Irish National Theatre Society and moved in 1904 into the new Abbey Theatre, named after the Dublin street in which it stood. Yeats worked as a director of the theater, writing several plays for it. At the age of 52, in 1917, he married Georgie Hyde-Lee, who was 26. Although Keats first had his doubts, the marriage was happy and they had a son and a daughter. ¹ He died in Menton, France, on 28 January 1939. He was buried after a discreet and private funeral at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. In September 1948, Yeats body was moved to Drumcliff, County Sligo. His epitaph is taken from the last lines of Under Ben Bulben, one of his final poems. ² Sources: ¹ nobelprize.org; ² Wikipedia Images: William Butler Yeats photographed in 1903 by Alice Boughton; Yeats’ gravesite in Drumcliff, photo by Diane Jeffries; face of grave marker, source unknown.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 14:37:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015