William Butler Yeats is without a doubt my favorite Irish poet, as well as one of my favorite poets in general. One of the aspects of Yeats that intrigued me when I first read his poetry was his ability to wrap mystical and abstract ideas in concrete words and images. One of the best examples of this is from one of Yeats’ best known poems – “The Second Coming” published in 1921 in the collection of poems titled Michael Robartes and the Dancer.
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst.”
William Butler Yeats was born in 1865 in Dublin. Yeats’ father, John Butler Yeats, moved the family to London when Yeats was two years old. John Butler Yeats studied art in London and became a well-respected portrait painter. The Yeats family moved back and forth between Dublin and London several times during Yeat’s youth. Yeats completed high school in Dublin and he also enrolled in the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin for two years following in his father’s footsteps. Yeats’s poetry was imbued and suffused with images and symbols and he credited this element to his artistic studies. Yeats returned to London where he met important literary figures such George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde.
The twin elements of Dublin and London played an important role in the development of Yeats’s aesthetic sensibility. As a young man Yeats was well read in British literary figures such as William Shakespeare, John Donne, Percy Shelley, and William Blake each of whom were important in Yeat’s poetic style and vision was shaped and formed Yeats’s poetic vision was also heavily indebted to Irish folklore, mythology, and the occult. Yeats was intrigued by the spiritual and mystical elements of Irish mythology and in interest in the spiritual domain was something that he pursued in depth.
One of the most significant personal influences in Yeats’ life was the feminist poet Maud Gonne (1865-1953). Yeats always referred to Gonne as his muse and unrequited love. Yeats proposed to Gonne’s daughter after Gonne turned down his proposal. A the age of 51 Yeats married Georgie Hyde Lee in 1917 (1892-1968). Lee was twenty five years Yeats’ junior but the marriage was a success. She shared Yeats interests in mysticism and spiritualism. She introduced Yeats to the technique of automatic writing and experiments with trances and the spirit world
Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. The Nobel Prize had political significance because of the recognition of an Irish writer shortly after Ireland had gained independence. Yeats was a very prolific poet who published a large body of work between 1893 and 1939. Yeats is also recognized as a major Irish playwright. He became involved with the Irish Literary Theater in 1899. The theater dedicated itself to performing and preserving Irish and Celtic plays.
“The Lake of Innisfree” is one of my personal favorites among Yeats’ work. Yeats wrote the poem in 1893 when he was a young man. It captures the importance and atmosphere of Ireland. Yeats recorded the poem as an old man. It is interesting to hear the older voice speaking of about his youthful experiences.
“I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.”