“But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my
dreams.”
Irish Poet and Author
 Born June 13, 1865 in Sandymount,
Dublin, Ireland
 Lived in London from 1867-1880 and
again in 1887
 1883- Attended the Metropolitan
School of Art in Dublin
 Served on the senate for the
foundation of the Irish Free State from
1922-1928
 He received the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1923.
 Died Jan. 28, 1939, in RoquebruneCap-Martin, France
 He is buried in Sligo and he wrote his
own Epitaph
› “Cast a cold eye/ On life, on
death./ Horseman, pass by!”

Religion
Father
 Anglo-Irish Protestant
› John Butler Yeats
 Separated from religion
 Lawyer & Portrait Painter
› Did not share Roman Catholic
Faith
 Mother
› Did not agree with the
› Susan (Pollexfen) Yeats
Protestant concern for
 Wife
material things
› Miss George Hyde-Lees
› His beliefs most closely
 Married in 1917
resemble those of the Pagan
 Children
tradition
› Anne Butler Yeats (1919)
› William Michael Yeats (1921)
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Yeats believed that through poems and plays he could create a
unified Irish Nation
He helped build & the Irish Literary Theater from 1899-1907
› which became the Abbey Theater in 1904
› He contributed his own plays to the theater such as
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The land of Heart’s Desire (1894)
Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902)
The Hour Glass (1903)
The King’s Threshold (1904)
On Baile’s Strand (1905)
Deirdre (1907)
Studied William Blake
 Spent much of his childhood in Sligo, Ireland
› Many of his poems are based on Sligo’s scenery, folklore, and
legends
 Purchased a devastated castle called Thoor Ballylee
› The castle becomes a symbol in many of his latest works

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Yeats utilizes imagery in many of his works and often times he will
repeat the same image over and over again in many poems to
further enrich them and to share different perspectives on them
› Some of his most common images include;
› Leda and the Swan
› Helen and the burning of Troy
› the Tower in its many forms
› the sun and moon
› the burning house
› cave, thorn tree, and well
› eagle, heron, sea gull, and hawk
› blind man, lame man, and beggar
› unicorn and phoenix
› horse, hound, and boar
Early Works
› Have a supernatural, imaginative and prophetic feel to them
› Called Pre-Raphaelite
 From 1909-1914
› He uses more bare and indicative imagery
› He writes about realities imperfections
 From 1917 onward
› Renewal of Inspiration
› Utilizes his castle as a symbol in many of his works entitled
The Tower (1928)
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