William Butler Yeats

The Wild Swans at Coole (Dodo Press) William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and together with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, and served as its chief during its early years. In 1923, he was awarded a 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 is generally considered one of the few writers whose greatest works were completed after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include: The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929). His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. His other works include: The Countess Kathleen (1892), The Celtic Twilight (1893), The Land of Heart's Desire (1894), The Secret Rose (1897), The Hour Glass (1903), Stories of Red Hanrahan (1904), Synge and the Ireland of His Time (1912), and Four Years (1921).