W.B. Yeats

Author profile

born

June 13, 1865 in Sandymount, County Dublin, Ireland

died

January 28, 1939

gender

male

genre

Poetry

influences

Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake, Ernest Rhys, John ...more

About this author

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William Butler Yeats (pronounced /ˈjeɪts/; 13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." He was the first Irishman so honored. Yeats is generally considered one of the...more

combine editions
Books by W.B. Yeats

Average rating: 4.23 · 13,721 ratings · 533 reviews · 269 distinct works

	The Collected Poems by W.B. Yeats, Richard J. Finneran (Editor) 4.28 avg rating — 7,824 ratings — published 1938 — 21 editions	My rating:
	Irish Fairy and Folk Tales 3.98 avg rating — 986 ratings — published 1892 — 83 editions	My rating:
	Selected Poems and Four Plays by W.B. Yeats, Macha Louis Rosenthal 4.36 avg rating — 467 ratings — published 1996 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore 4.10 avg rating — 500 ratings — published 1962 — 54 editions	My rating:
	Selected Poems by W.B. Yeats, John Kelly (Editor) 4.16 avg rating — 456 ratings — published 1991 — 16 editions	My rating:
	Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend & Folklore by W.B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory (Contributor) 4.17 avg rating — 275 ratings — published 1986	My rating:
	The Collected Works, Vol. 1: The Poems by W.B. Yeats, Richard J. Finneran 4.58 avg rating — 149 ratings — published 1990	My rating:
	The Yeats Reader: A Portable Compendium of Poetry, Drama, and Prose 4.17 avg rating — 131 ratings — published 1997 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Mythologies 4.14 avg rating — 114 ratings — published 1969 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Easter 1916 and Other Poems by W.B. Yeats, Dover Thrift Editions 4.10 avg rating — 100 ratings — published 1997	My rating:

More books by W.B. Yeats…

Series by W.B. Yeats

The Penguin Poetry Library (1 book)
by W.B. Yeats, John Kelly (Editor)

4.16 avg rating — 456 ratings

Quotes by W.B. Yeats

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
― W.B. Yeats

tags: awe , magic , perception , wonder

383 people liked it

“Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
― W.B. Yeats, The Wind Among the Reeds 1899

tags: heaven

294 people liked it

“When You Are Old"

WHEN you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.”
― W.B. Yeats

tags: age , loss , love

293 people liked it

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