FICHE CC YEATS
HIS LIFE.
William Butler Yeats was an Anglo-Irish Protestant. He was born in Dublin in
1865, but his parents moved to London. His brother, Jack B. Yeats, also became a
painter. Yeats spent all his holidays at his grandmother’s house in IRL, in a County
located on the West Coast called Sligo. love for IR myths, landscapes etc.
He enrolled in a number of organizations, one called “The Theosophical Society”.
Later, he joined “The Order of the Golden Dawn”. John O’Leary, a Fenian
inspired him with the phrase “There is no nationality without literature, and no
literature without nationality”. Yeats wanted to recreate a national literature.
At the end of the 19th century, when he went to Paris in touch with some famous
French writers (Baudelaire, Mallarmé…). It was urbanization, industrialization,
the development of consumerism… The first to react were the Romantics such as
Blake, Keats, Wordsworth…
He was part of the Protestant Ascendency. The Arts and Crafts Movement was
led by William Morris. He was in love with Maud Gonne, a Fenian who took part to
the Easter 1916 Rebellion. She married John McBride + an affair with a French
Man and had a daughter with him.
He created two associations: The National Literary Society & The IR National
Theatre Society. He became acquainted with the AM poets Ezra Pound and T.S
Elliot. With his friend Lady Augusta Gregory, they opened up a theatre which
became the Abbey Theatre. Her husband played a part during the great famine and
he was responsible for the vote of a law: the Gregory Clause (easier for landlords
to evict their tenants).
Parnell, to the eyes of Yeats was a hero. The Celtic Revival. The IR wanted to go
back to their Celtic rules. The Pre-Norman Period: everybody spoke Gaelic, so they
brought the revival of the language, it was called the Gaelic League. It was set up
by Douglass Hyde, a friend of Yeats. They taught people Irish. They collected
manuscripts in IR about stories, legends etc. and translate those into EN and print
them.
John M. Synge was also an IRP. William Butler Yeats encouraged him to visit 3
tiny islands called the Aran Islands. There, people continued to speak IR, to live a
traditional lifestyle. Yeats failed to realize that people also suffered from under-
development and poverty which led to massive emigration and poverty.
He finally married Georgie Hyde-Lees in 1917, she was much younger than him.
They practiced automatic writing & organized spiritism seances. He bought an
old Norman stone-tower in County Sligo, which is called Thoor Ballyllee.
Page 1 of 6
, His works if often divided into 5 periods:
The Beginning, inspired by his childhood, by IR folklore and also under the
influence of the Romantics. The Wind Among the Reeds (1899): the Lake Isle of
Innisfree and The Song of Wandering Aengus. Of the Seven Wounds. Lady Augusta
Gregory owned a Big House which was called Cool Park. The Wild Swans at Cool.
Theory about the mask, according to which Man is the result of a struggle between
two opposites: the self and the anti-self.
THE STOLEN CHILD: About the myth of the Sibhe /Little People. Defeated by
the Milesians: disappeared and found refuge underground. They kidnap children:
The Children that go with the fairies. The temptation offered to the child is to
save him from the dangers of human life, of the real world. The Lake House was an
adult who was drawn, ideal place be alone, work in nature, forget about the big
city. A price to pay: to leave behind which is familiar. the price to pay to
become a poet.
Middle-Yeats: more down-to-earth and realistic. You can play a role in society and
behind that mask be someone else. “What I have called the Mask is an emotional
antithesis to all that comes out of our internal nature ”. Lady Gregory + John M.
Synge. The Playboy of the Western World: A man arrives in a village & says that he
has killed his father everybody admires him for that and The Iron Island. Self-
reflective.
When the play was created at the Abbey scandal. Yeats was disgusted with
people’s reaction: He developed anti-democratic feelings. He wrote
Responsibilities, September 1913, Easter 1916. Celtic Revival.
Yeats at his best. He wrote A Vision: he goes back to his theory of the mask. The
Walking Stairs: alludes to Thoor Ballyllee but is also a symbol. The Second Coming:
allusion to a falcon and a gyre. There was WW1.
Old age: preoccupied by his virility, by love, by the problems of aging. He wrote
A Prayer for my Daughter, Among School Children.
Page 2 of 6
HIS LIFE.
William Butler Yeats was an Anglo-Irish Protestant. He was born in Dublin in
1865, but his parents moved to London. His brother, Jack B. Yeats, also became a
painter. Yeats spent all his holidays at his grandmother’s house in IRL, in a County
located on the West Coast called Sligo. love for IR myths, landscapes etc.
He enrolled in a number of organizations, one called “The Theosophical Society”.
Later, he joined “The Order of the Golden Dawn”. John O’Leary, a Fenian
inspired him with the phrase “There is no nationality without literature, and no
literature without nationality”. Yeats wanted to recreate a national literature.
At the end of the 19th century, when he went to Paris in touch with some famous
French writers (Baudelaire, Mallarmé…). It was urbanization, industrialization,
the development of consumerism… The first to react were the Romantics such as
Blake, Keats, Wordsworth…
He was part of the Protestant Ascendency. The Arts and Crafts Movement was
led by William Morris. He was in love with Maud Gonne, a Fenian who took part to
the Easter 1916 Rebellion. She married John McBride + an affair with a French
Man and had a daughter with him.
He created two associations: The National Literary Society & The IR National
Theatre Society. He became acquainted with the AM poets Ezra Pound and T.S
Elliot. With his friend Lady Augusta Gregory, they opened up a theatre which
became the Abbey Theatre. Her husband played a part during the great famine and
he was responsible for the vote of a law: the Gregory Clause (easier for landlords
to evict their tenants).
Parnell, to the eyes of Yeats was a hero. The Celtic Revival. The IR wanted to go
back to their Celtic rules. The Pre-Norman Period: everybody spoke Gaelic, so they
brought the revival of the language, it was called the Gaelic League. It was set up
by Douglass Hyde, a friend of Yeats. They taught people Irish. They collected
manuscripts in IR about stories, legends etc. and translate those into EN and print
them.
John M. Synge was also an IRP. William Butler Yeats encouraged him to visit 3
tiny islands called the Aran Islands. There, people continued to speak IR, to live a
traditional lifestyle. Yeats failed to realize that people also suffered from under-
development and poverty which led to massive emigration and poverty.
He finally married Georgie Hyde-Lees in 1917, she was much younger than him.
They practiced automatic writing & organized spiritism seances. He bought an
old Norman stone-tower in County Sligo, which is called Thoor Ballyllee.
Page 1 of 6
, His works if often divided into 5 periods:
The Beginning, inspired by his childhood, by IR folklore and also under the
influence of the Romantics. The Wind Among the Reeds (1899): the Lake Isle of
Innisfree and The Song of Wandering Aengus. Of the Seven Wounds. Lady Augusta
Gregory owned a Big House which was called Cool Park. The Wild Swans at Cool.
Theory about the mask, according to which Man is the result of a struggle between
two opposites: the self and the anti-self.
THE STOLEN CHILD: About the myth of the Sibhe /Little People. Defeated by
the Milesians: disappeared and found refuge underground. They kidnap children:
The Children that go with the fairies. The temptation offered to the child is to
save him from the dangers of human life, of the real world. The Lake House was an
adult who was drawn, ideal place be alone, work in nature, forget about the big
city. A price to pay: to leave behind which is familiar. the price to pay to
become a poet.
Middle-Yeats: more down-to-earth and realistic. You can play a role in society and
behind that mask be someone else. “What I have called the Mask is an emotional
antithesis to all that comes out of our internal nature ”. Lady Gregory + John M.
Synge. The Playboy of the Western World: A man arrives in a village & says that he
has killed his father everybody admires him for that and The Iron Island. Self-
reflective.
When the play was created at the Abbey scandal. Yeats was disgusted with
people’s reaction: He developed anti-democratic feelings. He wrote
Responsibilities, September 1913, Easter 1916. Celtic Revival.
Yeats at his best. He wrote A Vision: he goes back to his theory of the mask. The
Walking Stairs: alludes to Thoor Ballyllee but is also a symbol. The Second Coming:
allusion to a falcon and a gyre. There was WW1.
Old age: preoccupied by his virility, by love, by the problems of aging. He wrote
A Prayer for my Daughter, Among School Children.
Page 2 of 6
