William Butler Yeats Research Paper

f you were a poet or an artist back in the twentieth Century, you probably would have recognized the name William Butler Yeats. William was born on June 13, 1865 in Sandymount, Dublin, Ireland. He was one of the major figures of the twentieth century who was involved in the theater, the arts and writing. William Butler Yeats is considered to be one of the greatest lyric poets that Ireland has ever produced. His writings and poetry were heavily influenced not only by his parents and grandparents Irish roots but they were also influenced by places he had lived and visited and even more so by women he had loved and women he had lost in his lifetime. His unique style of writing was more of a dreamlike atmosphere with a hint of Irish folklore and

In his first collections, he portrayed his interest of Irish mythology by writing about heroes such as Oisin and St. Patrick. It is quite possible that his Irish beliefs in mythology led him to believe that there were supernatural beings in this world. It was during this time that Yeats profession as a writer began to take off. As he progressed as a poet, his writing began to take on a form of mysticism. This mysticism allowed him to use his imagination and to reach deep inside his life and use all of the Irish folktales and fairytales that his parents and grandparents had shared with him over his life. By writing about these heroes and fairies, this was his way of preserving his Irish roots and culture. Several of Yeats writings are reflective of this type of writing such as, “The Countess Cathleen” and “The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems.”

Yeats had a persistent attitude in his writing. His poems most often recounted his childhood growing up in Dublin. William became interested in politics later in his life. This interest, especially in Irish affairs, stemmed from the fact that his father was in politics and was a lawyer while Yeats was growing up. Williams’s involvement in the literary society was used to teach people about their Irish heritage and their country’s identity. Yeats founded the Abbey theatre and was mainly responsible for many of the plays that were shown