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W. B. Yeats

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From: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
Date: 20080415
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W. B. Yeats (William Butler Yeats), 1865-1939, Irish poet and playwright, b. Dublin. The greatest lyric poet Ireland has produced and one of the major figures of 20th-century literature, Yeats was the acknowledged leader of the Irish literary renaissance .

Early Life

Son of the painter John Butler Yeats, William studied painting in Dublin (1883-86). As a boy he attended school in London and spent vacations in County Sligo, Ireland, which was the setting for many of his poems. He became fascinated by Irish legends and by the occult. His first work, the drama Mosada (1886), reflects ...

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