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William Butler Yeats was born in 1865 in Dublin. His family were from Sligo.
He was interested in mysticim and the occult and had a great interest in Irish history and mythology.
One of his main aims with his poetry was to help to develop a strong Irish literature in the English language.
His interest in mythology can be seen in his early poetry but by 1910, he was writing in a more direct style, writing about everyday life and polititcs.
He became a senator in 1922 and was very active in this role; he supervised the design of the Irish coinage in 1926, for example.
Awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923, he died in Rome in 1936 and was buried in Drumcliff, Co. Clare after the end of the Second World War.

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Here are some brief details about the poetry written by Yeats which is on your course.

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You will find more detailed information about them further down the page.

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The Lake Isle Of Innisfree.

A poem about wanting to go and live in the peace and quiet of the island of Innisfree.

 September 1913.

In this poem, Yeats expresses his anger at how the Rising has turned out and how people have behaved.

 The Wild Swans At Coole.

Yeats writes here about looking at some swans on a lake in Galway and realising that he is not as young as he used to be.

 An Irish Airman forsees His Death.

A poem about the son of Yeats’ friend. He died in the First World War.

 Easter 1916.

A poem about the people who organized the 1916 Rising.

 The Second Coming.

A complicated but very interesting poem about the world coming to an end.

 Sailing To Byzantium.

A poem about youth and old age.

 The Stare’s Nest By My Window.

A poem about Yeats being trapped in his home in Galway during the Civil War of 1922/23.

 In Memory Of Eva Gore-Booth And Con Markiewicz.

This poem is dedicated to these two women, who campaigned for women’s rights and fought in the Rising respectively.

 Swift’s Epitaph.

A poem dedicated to Jonathan Swift, who wrote works such as Gulliver’s Travels.

 An Acre Of Grass.

Yeats wrote a poem here about old age and how he lived as an old man.

 from Under Ben Bulben.

Written when Yeats was 73, this poem this poem which is an elegy for his life.

These are the last two parts of the poem.

 Politics.

A short poem about trying to listen to an important conversation while trying to ignore a pretty girl nearby.