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W. B. Yeats: a potted biography
(Note: this biography focuses on the poetry and, in consequence, does not
refer to the other writings (plays and prose) unless they are deemed to
be particularly relevant).
Born: June 13, 1865 in Dublin, Ireland. Died: Jan 28, 1939.
Parentage: J.B. Yeats, the father, was a barrister and painter. Susan Polloxfen,
his mother, was a member of a weathy merchant in Sligo, Ireland. His parents
were Protestant in religion.
1867: the Yeats family move to London although Yeats himself spent
much of his time, in holidays, in Sligo with relatives.
1880: the Yeats family move back to Dublin.; Yeats continues his
schooling there.
1883: Yeats attends the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin where
he met artists and poets.
Yeats has also begun to write.
1887: Yeats family return to London; Yeats becomes a professional
writer.
Yeats joins the Theosophical Society, an organisation dedicated to the pursuit
of mysticism and mystical knowledge. He becomes involved in other `visionary'
traditions (Platonism; Neoplatonism, etc) and studies William Blake, a visionary
artist and writer.
Analysis: it is important to be aware of the influence of religion and the
visionary on the young Yeats. Yeats was a man of the imagination and the
occult appealed to this side of the man. He was also a man, like many romantics,
who saw in The Age of Science a threat to the imaginative, as did he see
ordinary, everyday life as a similar threat.
The early collection of poems, The Wanderings of Oisin, speak of
a young man whose soul seeks freedom from the circumstantial.
Yeats becomes involved in the literary life of London.; co-founds The Rhymers'
Club.
1889: Yeats meets Maud Gonne, Irish and talented. He falls in love.
Analysis: Gonne was a passionate Irish Nationalist and patriot. Yeats' Nationalism
is in part due to her influence on him.
1891: Charles Stuart Parnell - Irish leader - dies. Yeats feels that
politics has lost its significance. he proposes to fill the vacuum with
a resurgence in art, literature, Irish legend and the celtic tradition.
Yeats meets Augusta Lady Gregory who has an interest in Irish folklore;
this interest echoes Yeats' interest in pagan beliefs and the Celtic tradition.
He write The Celtic Twilight (1893). He becomes involved in the writing
of a new Irish poetry that recognises the pagan origins of Irish life and
its literature.
From 1898: Yeats stays at Coole Park (estate of Lady Gregory) in the summers.
Later purchases ruined Norman castle called Thoor Ballylee. The tower of
this castle becomes a significant sumbol in the later work.
1899: Yeats askes Maud Gonne to marry him; is rejected.
Yeats continues to work on literatuer that he envisages will transform Ireland
and its vision of itself.
Yeats helps establish the Irish Literary Theatre (later The Abbey Theatre);
his play Cathleen ni Houlihan is performed there.
1899: Wind Among The Reeds Published.
Analysis: the volume is characterised by its dreamlike quality and use of
folklore and legend (as was Poems (1895)).
1903 The Green Helmet published.
Analysis: In The Seven Woods is the beginning of a new phase in Yeats'
poetic development, mainly completed by The Green Helmet collection
of 1910. Here Yeats gradually diminishes the Pre-Raphaelite influence on
the colours and ryythms of the early verse and diminishes the Celtic and
occult. The otherworldly, intense atmosphere of the early poetry is replaced
by a more sparse imagery, a simpler verse line and a decision to deal with
reality rather than avoid it.
1917: The Wild Swans of Coole published: the beginning of
the finest of Yeats work in maturity of style and inspiration.
Yeats asks Iseult Gonne, daughter of Maud Gonne, to marry him; he is rejected.
Yeats marries George Hyde-Lees.
Two children follow the marriage by 1921
1922: with the establishment of the Irish Free State, Yeats invited
to become a member of the new Irish Senate. He serves as a senator for six
years.
1923: awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1925: A Vision published. A `meditation'.
1928: The Tower published. Named after the tower Yeats owned
and worked in.
1929: The Winding Stair published. Some of Yeats' greatest
writing in this volume.
Analysis: in the 1928/9 volumes the subject matter is often Ireland and
its political problems. Main symbols include: the Byzantium Empire; Plato.
Philosophy and psychical research influence the writings.
1938/9: New Poems and Last Poems published.
Analysis: old themes are revisited and reworked. Great technical range in
the oetry, including ballad rhythms and dialogue.
1939: Yeats died.