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103-627: One of its foremost figures was W. B. Yeats , considered a driving force of the Revival. Because of English colonial rule , matters of Gaelic heritage were sometimes viewed in a political context. The literary movement was associated with a revival of interest in Ireland's Gaelic heritage and the growth of Irish nationalism from the middle of the 19th century. The poetry of James Clarence Mangan and Samuel Ferguson and Standish James O'Grady 's History of Ireland: Heroic Period were influential in shaping

206-584: A Manifesto for Irish Literary Theatre in 1897, in which they proclaimed their intention of establishing a national theatre for Ireland. The Irish Literary Theatre (ILT) was founded by Yeats, Lady Gregory and Martyn in 1899, with assistance from George Moore . It proposed to give performances in Dublin of Irish plays by Irish authors. In February 1901, at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, the ILT performed “The Last Feast of

309-404: A "paint-stained art student." Gonne admired "The Island of Statues" and sought out his acquaintance. Yeats began an obsessive infatuation, and she had a significant and lasting effect on his poetry and his life thereafter. In later years he admitted, "it seems to me that she [Gonne] brought into my life those days—for as yet I saw only what lay upon the surface—the middle of the tint, a sound as of

412-471: A Burmese gong, an over-powering tumult that had yet many pleasant secondary notes." Yeats's love was unrequited, in part due to his reluctance to participate in her nationalist activism. In 1891 he visited Gonne in Ireland and proposed marriage, but was rejected. He later admitted that from that point "the troubling of my life began". Yeats proposed to Gonne three more times: in 1899, 1900 and 1901. She refused each proposal, and in 1903, to his dismay, married

515-743: A literary and sociological magazine, Joseph Plunkett edited its final issues as literary Ireland became involved with the Irish Volunteers and plans for the Easter Rising . Plunkett published a collection of poems, The Circle and The Sword , the same year. The movement co-existed with the growth of interest in the Irish language ( Gaelic League ), the Home Rule movement, the Gaelic Athletic Association , and other cultural organisations. It spawned

618-454: A member of the paranormal research organisation " The Ghost Club " (in 1911) and was influenced by the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg . In 1892 Yeats wrote: "If I had not made magic my constant study I could not have written a single word of my Blake book, nor would The Countess Kathleen ever have come to exist. The mystical life is the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write." His mystical interests—also inspired by

721-473: A monk, and a woman accused of paganism by local shepherds, as well as love-poems and narrative lyrics on German knights. The early works were both conventional and, according to the critic Charles Johnston, "utterly unIrish", seeming to come out of a "vast murmurous gloom of dreams". Although Yeats's early works drew heavily on Shelley, Edmund Spenser , and on the diction and colouring of pre-Raphaelite verse, he soon turned to Irish mythology and folklore and

824-529: A morning misty and mild and fair. The mist-drops hung on the fragrant trees, And in the blossoms hung the bees. We rode in sadness above Lough Lean, For our best were dead on Gavra's green. "The Wanderings of Oisin" is based on the lyrics of the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology and displays the influence of both Sir Samuel Ferguson and the Pre-Raphaelite poets. The poem took two years to complete and

927-473: A most sacrilegious thing to persuade two people who hate each other... to live together, and it is to us no remedy to permit them to part if neither can re-marry." The resulting debate has been described as one of Yeats's "supreme public moments", and began his ideological move away from pluralism towards religious confrontation. His language became more forceful; the Jesuit Father Peter Finlay

1030-795: A number of books and magazines and poetry by lesser-known artists such as Alice Furlong, Ethna Carbery, Dora Sigerson Shorter and Alice Milligan around the turn of the century. These were followed by the likes of George Roberts , Katharine Tynan , Thomas MacDonagh, Seán O'Casey , Seamus O'Sullivan and others up to the 1930s. It was complemented by developments in the arts world, which included artists such as Sarah Purser, Grace Gifford , Estella Solomons and Beatrice Elvery , and in music through works by composers such as Arnold Bax , Rutland Boughton , Edward Elgar , Cecil Gray and Peter Warlock , setting poetry and verse drama by Yeats, AE and Fiona Macleod . According to Matthew Buchan, Boughton's highly successful opera The Immortal Hour (1914), based on

1133-450: A potentially unsuitable wife; biographer R. F. Foster has observed that Yeats's last offer was motivated more by a sense of duty than by a genuine desire to marry her. Yeats proposed in an indifferent manner, with conditions attached, and he both expected and hoped she would turn him down. According to Foster, "when he duly asked Maud to marry him and was duly refused, his thoughts shifted with surprising speed to her daughter." Iseult Gonne

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1236-593: A prolific writer. In a letter of 1935, Yeats noted: "I find my present weakness made worse by the strange second puberty the operation has given me, the ferment that has come upon my imagination. If I write poetry it will be unlike anything I have done." In 1936, he undertook editorship of the Oxford Book of Modern Verse, 1892–1935 . From 1935 to 1936 he travelled to the Western Mediterranean island of Majorca with Indian -born Shri Purohit Swami and from there

1339-508: A revolutionary women's society which included writers Alice Furlong , Annie Egan, Ethna Carbery and Sinéad O'Flanagan (later wife of Éamon de Valera ), and the actors Máire Quinn and Sara Allgood . The Irish-language newspaper Banba was founded in 1901 with Tadhg Ó Donnchadha as editor. The following year he also became editor of the Gaelic Journal . In 1903 Yeats, Lady Gregory, George Russell ("AE") , Edward Martyn, and Synge founded

1442-646: A series of allegations against her husband with Yeats as her main 'second', though he did not attend court or travel to France. A divorce was not granted, for the only accusation that held up in court was that MacBride had been drunk once during the marriage. A separation was granted, with Gonne having custody of the baby and MacBride having visiting rights. In 1895, Yeats moved into number 5 Woburn Walk and resided there until 1919. Yeats's friendship with Gonne ended, yet, in Paris in 1908, they finally consummated their relationship. "The long years of fidelity rewarded at last"

1545-828: A study of Hinduism, under the Theosophist Mohini Chatterjee , and the occult—formed much of the basis of his late poetry. Some critics disparaged this aspect of Yeats's work. During 1885, Yeats was involved in the formation of the Dublin Hermetic Order. That year the Dublin Theosophical lodge was opened in conjunction with Brahmin Mohini Chatterjee , who travelled from the Theosophical Society in London to lecture. Yeats attended his first séance

1648-578: A verse drama by Macleod, "blends all the essential elements of Celtic Twilight". William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist and writer, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature . He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival , and along with Lady Gregory founded the Abbey Theatre , serving as its chief during its early years. He

1751-592: A year's time when the newspapers have forgotten me, dig me up and plant me in Sligo.'" In September 1948, Yeats's body was moved to the churchyard of St Columba's Church , Drumcliff , County Sligo, on the Irish Naval Service corvette LÉ Macha . The person in charge of this operation for the Irish Government was Seán MacBride , son of Maud Gonne MacBride, and then Minister of External Affairs . His epitaph

1854-528: Is a theatre on South King Street in Dublin , Ireland , off Grafton Street and close to St. Stephen's Green . It specialises in operatic and musical productions, with occasional dramatic shows. In April 1871, the brothers John and Michael Gunn obtained a 21-year licence to establish "a well-regulated theatre and therein at all times publicly to act, represent or perform any interlude, tragedy, comedy, prelude, opera, burletta, play, farce or pantomime". In favour of

1957-465: Is considered one of the key 20th-century English-language poets. He was a Symbolist poet, using allusive imagery and symbolic structures throughout his career. He chose words and assembled them so that, in addition to a particular meaning, they suggest abstract thoughts that may seem more significant and resonant. His use of symbols is usually something physical that is both itself and a suggestion of other, perhaps immaterial, timeless qualities. Unlike

2060-675: Is not found in the theatres of England, & without which no new movement in art or literature can succeed." Yeats's interest in the classics and his defiance of English censorship were also fueled by a tour of America he took between 1903 and 1904. Stopping to deliver a lecture at the University of Notre Dame , he learned about the student production of the Oedipus Rex . This play was banned in England, an act he viewed as hypocritical and denounced as part of 'British Puritanism'. He contrasted this with

2163-559: Is taken from the last lines of " Under Ben Bulben ", one of his final poems: Cast a cold Eye On Life, on Death. Horseman, pass by! The French ambassador Stanislas Ostroróg was involved in returning Yeats' remains to Ireland in 1948; in a letter to the European director of the Foreign Ministry in Paris, "Ostrorog tells how Yeats's son Michael sought official help in locating the poet's remains. Neither Michael Yeats nor Sean MacBride,

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2266-690: The Arts and Crafts movement . Their cousin Ruth Pollexfen , who was raised by the Yeats sisters after her parents' separation, designed the interior of the Australian prime minister's official residence . Yeats was raised a member of the Protestant Ascendancy , which was at the time undergoing a crisis of identity. While his family was supportive of the changes Ireland was experiencing, the nationalist revival of

2369-521: The Gaelic League , with Hyde becoming its first President. It was set up to encourage the preservation of Irish culture, its music, dances and language. Also in that year appeared Hyde's The Love Songs of Connacht , which inspired Yeats, John Millington Synge and Lady Gregory . Thomas A. Finlay founded the New Ireland Review , a literary magazine, in 1894, which he edited until 1911, when it

2472-508: The Gaelic Union established the Gaelic Journal ( Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge ), the first important bilingual Irish periodical with the help of Douglas Hyde , with David Comyn as editor. The early literary revival had two geographic centres, in Dublin and in London, and William Butler Yeats travelled between the two, writing and organising. In 1888 he published Fairy and Folk Tales of

2575-545: The North ... You will put a wedge in the midst of this nation." He memorably said of his fellow Irish Protestants, "we are no petty people". In 1924 he chaired a coinage committee charged with selecting a set of designs for the first currency of the Irish Free State . Aware of the symbolic power latent in the imagery of a young state's currency, he sought a form that was "elegant, racy of the soil, and utterly unpolitical". When

2678-400: The modernists who experimented with free verse , Yeats was a master of the traditional forms. The impact of modernism on his work can be seen in the increasing abandonment of the more conventionally poetic diction of his early work in favour of the more austere language and more direct approach to his themes that increasingly characterises the poetry and plays of his middle period, comprising

2781-464: The partition of Ireland . In response, Yeats delivered a series of speeches that attacked the "quixotically impressive" ambitions of the government and clergy, likening their campaign tactics to those of "medieval Spain." "Marriage is not to us a Sacrament, but, upon the other hand, the love of a man and woman, and the inseparable physical desire, are sacred. This conviction has come to us through ancient philosophy and modern literature, and it seems to us

2884-678: The American poet Ezra Pound in 1909. Pound had travelled to London at least partly to meet the older man, whom he considered "the only poet worthy of serious study." From 1913 until 1916, the two men wintered in the Stone Cottage at Ashdown Forest , with Pound nominally acting as Yeats's secretary. The relationship got off to a rocky start when Pound arranged for the publication in the magazine Poetry of some of Yeats's verse with Pound's own unauthorised alterations. These changes reflected Pound's distaste for Victorian prosody. A more indirect influence

2987-465: The Butler of Neigham Gowran family, descended from an illegitimate brother of The 8th Earl of Ormond . At the time of his marriage, his father, John, was studying law but later pursued art studies at Heatherley School of Fine Art , in London. William's mother, Susan Mary Pollexfen , from Sligo , came from a wealthy merchant family, who owned a milling and shipping business. Soon after William's birth,

3090-482: The English travelling companies, and we wanted Irish plays and Irish players. When we thought of these plays we thought of everything that was romantic and poetical because the nationalism we had called up—the nationalism every generation had called up in moments of discouragement—was romantic and poetical." The prize led to a significant increase in the sales of his books, as his publishers Macmillan sought to capitalise on

3193-509: The Fianna”, a one-act depiction of an episode in the tale of Oisin . It was the work of the Gaelic League activist, Alice Milligan . Lady Gregory found the lack of action and long soliloquies "intolerable" and the overall effect "tawdry". But it was a first attempt "to dramatize Celtic Legend for an Irish audience". The Fay brothers formed W. G. Fay's Irish National Dramatic Company , focused on

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3296-639: The Golden Dawn ceased and splintered into various offshoots, Yeats remained with the Stella Matutina until 1921. During séances held from 1912, a spirit calling itself "Leo Africanus" apparently claimed it was Yeats's Daemon or anti-self, inspiring some of the speculations in Per Amica Silentia Lunae . Yeats first significant poem was "The Island of Statues", a fantasy work that took Edmund Spenser and Shelley for its poetic models. The piece

3399-521: The Gunn's licence application was that, unlike the existing theatres, they were not proposing to promote local drama which had acquired something of a reputation with the Dublin Castle administration for stirring up nationalist sentiments. The city centre site was 17 metres wide on King Street and 42 metres deep towards Tangier Lane. The Gunns employed the experienced theatre architect C.J. Phipps . One of

3502-970: The Irish National Theatre Society with funding from Annie Horniman ; Fred Ryan was secretary. The Abbey Theatre was opened by this society in Abbey Street on 27 December 1904. Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh played the name part in Cathleen Ni Houlihan . Yeats' brother Jack painted portraits of all the leading figures in the society for the foyer, while Sarah Purser designed stained glass for the same space. The new Abbey Theatre found great popular success. It staged many plays by eminent or soon-to-be eminent authors, including Yeats, Lady Gregory, Moore, Martyn, Padraic Colum , George Bernard Shaw , Oliver St John Gogarty , F. R. Higgins , Thomas MacDonagh , Lord Dunsany , T. C. Murray , James Cousins and Lennox Robinson . In 1904 John Eglinton started

3605-698: The Irish Peasantry , a compilation of pieces by various authors of the 18th and 19th centuries. He had been assisted by Douglas Hyde , whose Beside the Fire , a collection of folklore in Irish, was published in 1890. In London in 1892, along with T. W. Rolleston , and Charles Gavan Duffy , he set up the Irish Literary Society . Back in Dublin he founded the National Literary Society in the same year, with Douglas Hyde as first President. Meanwhile,

3708-409: The Irish foreign minister who organised the ceremony, wanted to know the details of how the remains were collected, Ostrorog notes. He repeatedly urges caution and discretion and says the Irish ambassador in Paris should not be informed." Yeats's body was exhumed in 1946 and the remains were moved to an ossuary and mixed with other remains. The French Foreign Ministry authorized Ostrorog to secretly cover

3811-501: The Irish nationalist Major John MacBride . His only other love affair during this period was with Olivia Shakespear , whom he first met in 1894, and parted from in 1897. Yeats derided MacBride in letters and in poetry. He was horrified by Gonne's marriage, at losing his muse to another man; in addition, her conversion to Catholicism before marriage offended the Protestant/agnostic Yeats. He worried his muse would come under

3914-499: The Reeds (1899). The covers of these volumes were illustrated by Yeats's friend Althea Gyles . In 1890 Yeats and Ernest Rhys co-founded the Rhymers' Club , a group of London-based poets who met regularly in a Fleet Street tavern to recite their verse. Yeats later sought to mythologize the collective, calling it the "Tragic Generation" in his autobiography, and published two anthologies of

4017-560: The Rhymers' work, the first one in 1892 and the second one in 1894. He collaborated with Edwin Ellis on the first complete edition of William Blake's works, in the process rediscovering a forgotten poem, "Vala, or, the Four Zoas". In 1889, Yeats met Maud Gonne, a 23-year-old English heiress and ardent Irish nationalist. She was eighteen months younger than Yeats and later claimed she met the poet as

4120-727: The Yeats children were educated at home. Their mother entertained them with stories and Irish folktales. John provided an erratic education in geography and chemistry and took William on natural history explorations of the nearby Slough countryside. On 26 January 1877, the young poet entered the Godolphin School , which he attended for four years. He did not distinguish himself academically, and an early school report describes his performance as "only fair. Perhaps better in Latin than in any other subject. Very poor in spelling". Though he had difficulty with mathematics and languages (possibly because he

4223-580: The aftermath of the First World War, he became sceptical about the efficacy of democratic government, and anticipated political reconstruction in Europe through totalitarian rule. His later association with Pound drew him towards Benito Mussolini , for whom he expressed admiration on a number of occasions. He wrote three "marching songs"—never used—for the Irish General Eoin O'Duffy 's Blueshirts . At

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4326-630: The age of 69 he was 'rejuvenated' by the Steinach operation which was performed on 6 April 1934 by Norman Haire . For the last five years of his life Yeats found a new vigour evident from both his poetry and his intimate relations with younger women. During this time, Yeats was involved in a number of romantic affairs with, among others, the poet and actress Margot Ruddock and the novelist, journalist and sexual radical Ethel Mannin . As in his earlier life, Yeats found erotic adventure conducive to his creative energy, and, despite age and ill-health, he remained

4429-535: The artistic freedom of the Catholicism found at Notre Dame, which had allowed such a play with themes such as incest and parricide. He desired to stage a production of the Oedipus Rex in Dublin. The collective survived for about two years but was unsuccessful. Working with the Irish brothers with theatrical experience, William and Frank Fay , Yeats's unpaid but independently wealthy secretary Annie Horniman , and

4532-609: The board and a prolific playwright. In 1902, he helped set up the Dun Emer Press to publish work by writers associated with the Revival. This became the Cuala Press in 1904, and inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement, sought to "find work for Irish hands in the making of beautiful things." From then until its closure in 1946, the press—which was run by the poet's sisters—produced over 70 titles; 48 of them books by Yeats himself. Yeats met

4635-485: The bodily desire for me may be taken from you too." By January 1909, Gonne was sending Yeats letters praising the advantage given to artists who abstain from sex. Nearly twenty years later, Yeats recalled the night with Gonne in his poem "A Man Young and Old": My arms are like the twisted thorn And yet there beauty lay; The first of all the tribe lay there And did such pleasure take; She who had brought great Hector down And put all Troy to wreck. In 1896, Yeats

4738-457: The cost of repatriation from his slush fund. Authorities were worried about the fact that the much-loved poet's remains were thrown into a communal grave, causing embarrassment for both Ireland and France. Per a letter from Ostroróg to his superiors, "Mr Rebouillat, (a) forensic doctor in Roquebrune would be able to reconstitute a skeleton presenting all the characteristics of the deceased." Yeats

4841-409: The court heard allegations that he had sexually assaulted Iseult, then eleven. At fifteen, she proposed to Yeats. In 1917, he proposed to Iseult but was rejected. That September, Yeats proposed to 25-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees (1892–1968), known as George, whom he had met through Olivia Shakespear . Despite warnings from her friends—"George ... you can't. He must be dead"—Hyde-Lees accepted, and

4944-657: The development of Irish acting talent. The company produced works by Seumas O'Cuisin , Fred Ryan and Yeats. Around the turn of the century Patrick S. Dinneen published editions of Geoffrey Keating 's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn , poems by Aogán Ó Rathaille and Piaras Feiritéar , and other works for the Irish Texts Society and the Gaelic League. He then went on to write the first novel in Irish, while continuing to work on his great Irish-English dictionary. On Easter Sunday 1900 Yeats' friend and muse, Maud Gonne , founded Inghinidhe na hÉireann (English: Daughters of Ireland),

5047-472: The family from proceeding with the removal of the remains to Ireland due to the uncertainty of their identity. His body had earlier been exhumed and transferred to the ossuary . Yeats and his wife, George, had often discussed his death and his express wish was that he be buried quickly in France with a minimum of fuss. According to George, "His actual words were 'If I die, bury me up there [at Roquebrune] and then in

5150-454: The family moved to 3 Blenheim Road in Bedford Park where they would remain until 1902. The rent on the house in 1888 was £50 a year. Yeats began writing his first works when he was seventeen; these included a poem—heavily influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelley —that describes a magician who set up a throne in central Asia. Other pieces from this period include a draft of a play about a bishop,

5253-669: The family relocated to the Pollexfen home at Merville, Sligo, to stay with her extended family, and the young poet came to think of the area as his childhood and spiritual home. Its landscape became, over time, both personally and symbolically, his "country of the heart". So too did its location by the sea; John Yeats stated that "by marriage with a Pollexfen, we have given a tongue to the sea cliffs". The Butler Yeats family were highly artistic; his brother Jack became an esteemed painter, while his sisters Elizabeth and Susan Mary —known to family and friends as Lollie and Lily—became involved in

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5356-494: The fascist movements as a triumph of public order and the needs of the national collective over petty individualism. He was an elitist who abhorred the idea of mob-rule, and saw democracy as a threat to good governance and public order. After the Blueshirt movement began to falter in Ireland, he distanced himself somewhat from his previous views, but maintained a preference for authoritarian and nationalist leadership. By 1916, Yeats

5459-716: The first President of Ireland, whose Love Songs of Connacht was widely admired. In 1899, Yeats, Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and George Moore founded the Irish Literary Theatre to promote Irish plays. The ideals of the Abbey were derived from the avant-garde French theatre, which sought to express the "ascendancy of the playwright rather than the actor-manager à l'anglais ." The group's manifesto, which Yeats wrote, declared, "We hope to find in Ireland an uncorrupted & imaginative audience trained to listen by its passion for oratory ... & that freedom to experiment which

5562-595: The first years of marriage, they experimented with automatic writing ; she contacted a variety of spirits and guides they called "Instructors" while in a trance. The spirits communicated a complex and esoteric system of philosophy and history, which the couple developed into an exposition using geometrical shapes: phases, cones, and gyres. Yeats devoted much time to preparing this material for publication as A Vision (1925). In 1924, he wrote to his publisher T. Werner Laurie, admitting, "I dare say I delude myself in thinking this book my book of books." In December 1923, Yeats

5665-552: The following year. Yeats was admitted into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in March 1890 and took the magical motto Daemon est Deus inversus —translated as 'Devil is God inverted'. He was an active recruiter for the sect's Isis-Urania Temple , and brought in his uncle George Pollexfen, Maud Gonne , and Florence Farr . Although he reserved a distaste for abstract and dogmatic religions founded around personality cults, he

5768-612: The house finally decided on the artwork of Percy Metcalfe , Yeats was pleased, though he regretted that compromise had led to "lost muscular tension" in the finally depicted images. He retired from the Senate in 1928 because of ill health. Towards the end of his life—and especially after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and Great Depression , which led some to question whether democracy could cope with deep economic difficulty—Yeats seems to have returned to his aristocratic sympathies. During

5871-403: The influence of the priests and do their bidding. Gonne's marriage to MacBride was a disaster. This pleased Yeats, as Gonne began to visit him in London. After the birth of her son, Seán MacBride , in 1904, Gonne and MacBride agreed to end the marriage, although they were unable to agree on the child's welfare. Despite the use of intermediaries, a divorce case ensued in Paris in 1905. Gonne made

5974-476: The journal Dana , to which Fred Ryan and Oliver St John Gogarty contributed. In 1906 the publishing house of Maunsel and Company was founded by Stephen Gwynn , Joseph Maunsel Hone and George Roberts to publish Irish writers. Its first publication was Rush-light by Joseph Campbell . Lady Gregory started publishing her collection of Kiltartan stories, including A Book of Saints and Wonders (1906) and The Kiltartan History Book (1909). The Irish Review

6077-444: The late 19th century directly disadvantaged his heritage and informed his outlook for the remainder of his life. In 1997, his biographer R. F. Foster observed that Napoleon's dictum that to understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty "is manifestly true of W.B.Y." Yeats's childhood and young adulthood were shadowed by the power-shift away from the minority Protestant Ascendancy. The 1880s saw

6180-519: The leading West End actress Florence Farr , the group established the Irish National Theatre Society . Along with Synge, they acquired property in Dublin and on 27 December 1904 opened the Abbey Theatre . Yeats's play Cathleen ni Houlihan and Lady Gregory's Spreading the News were featured on the opening night. Yeats remained involved with the Abbey until his death, both as a member of

6283-534: The many incidents, woven into one great event of, let us say the War for the Brown Bull of Cuailgne or that of the last gathering at Muirthemne." Yeats was an Irish nationalist , who sought a kind of traditional lifestyle articulated through poems such as 'The Fisherman'. But as his life progressed, he sheltered much of his revolutionary spirit and distanced himself from the intense political landscape until 1922 , when he

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6386-521: The minds of the following generations. Others who contributed to the build-up of national consciousness during the 19th century included poet and writer George Sigerson ; antiquarians and music collectors such as George Petrie , Robert Dwyer Joyce and Patrick Weston Joyce ; editors such as Matthew Russell of the Irish Monthly ; scholars such as John O'Donovan and Eugene O'Curry ; and nationalists such as Charles Kickham and John O'Leary . In 1882

6489-718: The more radical Arthur Griffith and William Rooney were active in the Irish Fireside Club and went on to found the Leinster Literary Society. In 1893 Yeats published The Celtic Twilight , a collection of lore and reminiscences from the West of Ireland. The book closed with the poem "Into the Twilight". It was this book and poem that gave the revival its nickname. In this year Hyde, Eugene O'Growney and Eoin MacNeill founded

6592-430: The more sensual characterisation of Salomé, in Wilde's play of the same name , provides the template for the changes Yeats made in his later plays, especially in On Baile's Strand (1904), Deirdre (1907), and his dance play The King of the Great Clock Tower (1934). Yeats had a lifelong interest in mysticism, spiritualism , occultism and astrology . He read extensively on the subjects throughout his life, became

6695-511: The occult. While in London he became part of the Irish literary revival . His early poetry was influenced by John Keats , William Wordsworth , William Blake and many more. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, lasting roughly from his student days at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced, modernist and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser , Percy Bysshe Shelley and

6798-470: The pavement beneath the theatre canopy. These handprints include those of Luciano Pavarotti , Brendan Grace , Maureen Potter , Twink , John B Keane , Anna Manahan , Niall Toibin and Brian Friel . The theatre played host to the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest , the first to be staged in Ireland, during the Gaiety's centenary year. Clodagh Rodgers (a contestant in that particular contest) later presented her RTÉ TV series The Clodagh Rodgers Show from

6901-623: The poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood . From 1900 his poetry grew more physical, realistic and politicised. He moved away from the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with some elements including cyclical theories of life. He had become the chief playwright for the Irish Literary Theatre in 1897, and early on promoted younger poets such as Ezra Pound . His major works include The Land of Heart's Desire (1894), Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), Deirdre (1907), The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), The Tower (1928) and Last Poems and Plays (1940). William Butler Yeats

7004-411: The publicity. For the first time he had money, and he was able to repay not only his own debts but those of his father. By early 1925, Yeats's health had stabilised, and he had completed most of the writing for A Vision . Dated 1925, it actually appeared in January 1926, when he almost immediately started rewriting it for a second version. He had been appointed to the first Irish Senate in 1922, and

7107-429: The refrain of " Easter, 1916 " ("All changed, changed utterly / A terrible beauty is born"), Yeats faces his own failure to recognise the merits of the leaders of the Easter Rising , due to his attitude towards their ordinary backgrounds and lives. Yeats was close to Lady Gregory and her home place of Coole Park , County Galway. He would often visit and stay there as it was a central meeting place for people who supported

7210-401: The resurgence of Irish literature and cultural traditions. His poem, " The Wild Swans at Coole " was written there, between 1916 and 1917. He wrote prefaces for two books of Irish mythological tales, compiled by Lady Gregory: Cuchulain of Muirthemne (1902), and Gods and Fighting Men (1904). In the preface of the latter, he wrote: "One must not expect in these stories the epic lineaments,

7313-480: The rise of Charles Stewart Parnell and the home rule movement; the 1890s saw the momentum of nationalism , while the Irish Catholics became prominent around the turn of the century. These developments had a profound effect on his poetry, and his subsequent explorations of Irish identity had a significant influence on the creation of his country's biography. In 1867, the family moved to England to aid their father, John, to further his career as an artist. At first,

7416-515: The theatre in 1936 and ran it for several decades with local actors and actresses. They sold it in 1965, and in the 1960s and the 1970s the theatre was run by Fred O'Donovan and the Eamonn Andrews Studios , until - in the 1980s - Joe Dowling (former artistic director of the Abbey Theatre ) became director of the Gaiety. In the 1990s, Groundwork Productions took on the lease and the theatre

7519-488: The theatre in the late 1970s. The Gaiety is known for its annual Christmas pantomime and has hosted a pantomime every year since 1874, though no production was possible in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, with the scheduled panto, The Little Mermaid postponed until 2021. Actor and director Alan Stanford directed both Gaiety productions of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty . Irish entertainer June Rodgers starred in

7622-465: The theatre was radically different from others in Ireland. From the outset the Gunns decided that their new theatre would be a ‘receiving house’: that is, it would receive touring companies and would not have its own company of actors or a repertory programme: As a receiving house, there was no need for extensive rehearsal spaces, workshops or storage areas. The theatre was built for £26,000, and construction

7725-434: The theatres Phipps had recently completed in 1868 in London was the Gaiety and its name and auditorium layout were adopted for the new theatre in Dublin. The audience capacity was 2000 spread over four floors: the 'parterre' or ground floor pit with 21 rows of seats; the dress circle and upper circle comprising: balcony stalls with 7 rows of seats, the first circle with 6 rows of seats, the amphitheater with 2 rows of seats; and

7828-405: The top floor gallery with 9 rows of seats; plus 14 private boxes. Each class of seats was accessed via its own entrance and stairway. There was a smoking balcony, bars on each floor and a tea-room. The design included tip-up seats (an innovative way of increasing the audience capacity) and fire-safety features such as a 4” water main (for firefighting) and stone (not wooden) staircases. Back stage:

7931-571: The two of them performed the majority of the work in translating the principal Upanishads from Sanskrit into common English; the resulting work, The Ten Principal Upanishads , was published in 1938. He died at the Hôtel Idéal Beauséjour in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin , near Menton , France, on 28 January 1939, aged 73. He was buried after a discreet and private funeral at Roquebrune. Attempts had been made at Roquebrune to dissuade

8034-493: The two were married on 20 October 1917. Their marriage was a success, in spite of the age difference, and in spite of Yeats's feelings of remorse and regret during their honeymoon. The couple went on to have two children, Anne and Michael . Although in later years he had romantic relationships with other women, Georgie herself wrote to her husband, "When you are dead, people will talk about your love affairs, but I shall say nothing, for I will remember how proud you were." During

8137-565: The volumes In the Seven Woods , Responsibilities and The Green Helmet . His later poetry and plays are written in a more personal vein, and the works written in the last twenty years of his life include mention of his son and daughter, as well as meditations on the experience of growing old. In his poem " The Circus Animals' Desertion ", he describes the inspiration for these late works: Gaiety Theatre, Dublin The Gaiety Theatre

8240-531: The words: "I consider that this honour has come to me less as an individual than as a representative of Irish literature, it is part of Europe's welcome to the Free State." Yeats used the occasion of his acceptance lecture at the Royal Academy of Sweden to present himself as a standard-bearer of Irish nationalism and Irish cultural independence. As he remarked, "The theatres of Dublin were empty buildings hired by

8343-559: The writings of William Blake . In later life, Yeats paid tribute to Blake by describing him as one of the "great artificers of God who uttered great truths to a little clan". In 1891, Yeats published John Sherman and "Dhoya", one a novella, the other a story. The influence of Oscar Wilde is evident in Yeats's theory of aesthetics, especially in his stage plays, and runs like a motif through his early works. The theory of masks, developed by Wilde in his polemic The Decay of Lying can clearly be seen in Yeats's play The Player Queen , while

8446-474: Was tone deaf and had dyslexia ), he was fascinated by biology and zoology. In 1879 the family moved to Bedford Park taking a two-year lease at 8 Woodstock Road. For financial reasons, the family returned to Dublin toward the end of 1880, living at first in the suburbs of Harold's Cross and later in Howth . In October 1881, Yeats resumed his education at Dublin's Erasmus Smith High School . His father's studio

8549-479: Was 51 years old and determined to marry and produce an heir. His rival, John MacBride , had been executed for his role in the 1916 Easter Rising , so Yeats hoped that his widow, Maud Gonne , might remarry. His final proposal to Gonne took place in mid-1916. Gonne's history of revolutionary political activism, as well as a series of personal catastrophes in the previous few years of her life—including chloroform addiction and her troubled marriage to MacBride—made her

8652-438: Was Maud's second child with Lucien Millevoye , and at the time was twenty-one years old. She had lived a sad life to this point; conceived as an attempt to reincarnate her short-lived brother, for the first few years of her life she was presented as her mother's adopted niece. When Maud told her that she was going to marry, Iseult cried and told her mother that she hated MacBride. When Gonne took action to divorce MacBride in 1905,

8755-601: Was appointed Senator for the Irish Free State . In the earlier part of his life, Yeats was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood . In the 1930s, Yeats was fascinated with the authoritarian, anti-democratic, nationalist movements of Europe, and he composed several marching songs for the Blueshirts , although they were never used. He was a fierce opponent of individualism and political liberalism and saw

8858-506: Was attracted to the type of people he met at the Golden Dawn. He became heavily involved with Theosophy and with the eclectic Rosicrucianism of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn . He was involved in the Order's power struggles, both with Farr and Macgregor Mathers , and was involved when Mathers sent Aleister Crowley to repossess Golden Dawn paraphernalia during the "Battle of Blythe Road". After

8961-600: Was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature , and later served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State . A Protestant of Anglo-Irish descent, Yeats was born in Sandymount , Ireland. His father practised law and was a successful portrait painter. He was educated in Dublin and London and spent his childhood holidays in County Sligo . He studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish legends and

9064-455: Was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation". Politically aware, he knew the symbolic value of an Irish winner so soon after Ireland had gained independence, and highlighted the fact at each available opportunity. His reply to many of the letters of congratulations sent to him contained

9167-515: Was born in Sandymount in County Dublin , Ireland. His father John was a descendant of Jervis Yeats, a Williamite soldier, linen merchant, and well-known painter, who died in 1712. Benjamin Yeats, Jervis's grandson and William's great-great-grandfather, had in 1773 married Mary Butler of a landed family in County Kildare . Following their marriage, they kept the name Butler. Mary was of

9270-616: Was completed in just 28 weeks. The Gaiety was opened on 27 November 1871, with the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland as guest of honour for a double bill which included the comedy She Stoops to Conquer and a burlesque version of La Belle Sauvage . The Gaiety was extended by theatre architect Frank Matcham in 1883, and, despite several improvements to public spaces and stage changes, it retains several Victorian era features and remains Dublin's longest-established, continuously producing theatre. Patrick Wall and Louis Elliman bought

9373-487: Was described by Yeats as a man of "monstrous discourtesy", and he lamented that "It is one of the glories of the Church in which I was born that we have put our Bishops in their place in discussions requiring legislation." During his time in the Senate, Yeats further warned his colleagues, "If you show that this country, southern Ireland, is going to be governed by Roman Catholic ideas and by Catholic ideas alone, you will never get

9476-599: Was eventually bought by the Break for the Border Group . The Gaiety was purchased by music promoters MCD (in turn owned by Denis Desmond and his wife Caroline) in the late 1990s. The new owners undertook a refit of the theatre, with the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism contributing to the restoration fund. Performers and playwrights associated with the theatre have been celebrated with hand-prints cast in bronze and set in

9579-452: Was followed by the collection The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889), which arranged a series of verse that dated as far back as the mid-1880s. The long title poem contains, in the words of his biographer R. F. Foster , "obscure Gaelic names, striking repetitions [and] an unremitting rhythm subtly varied as the poem proceeded through its three sections": We rode in sorrow, with strong hounds three, Bran, Sceolan, and Lomair, On

9682-568: Was founded in 1910 by Professor David Houston of the Royal College of Science for Ireland, with his friends poet Thomas MacDonagh , lecturer in English in University College Dublin, poet and writer James Stephens , with David Houston, Thomas MacDonagh, Padraic Colum and Mary Colum and Joseph Mary Plunkett . The magazine was edited by Thomas MacDonagh for its first issues, then Padraic Colum, then, changing its character utterly from

9785-545: Was how another of his lovers described the event. Yeats was less sentimental and later remarked that "the tragedy of sexual intercourse is the perpetual virginity of the soul." The relationship did not develop into a new phase after their night together, and soon afterwards Gonne wrote to the poet indicating that despite the physical consummation, they could not continue as they had been: "I have prayed so hard to have all earthly desire taken from my love for you and dearest, loving you as I do, I have prayed and I am praying still that

9888-508: Was introduced to Lady Gregory by their mutual friend Edward Martyn . Gregory encouraged Yeats's nationalism and convinced him to continue focusing on writing drama. Although he was influenced by French Symbolism , Yeats concentrated on an identifiably Irish content and this inclination was reinforced by his involvement with a new generation of younger and emerging Irish authors. Together with Lady Gregory, Martyn, and other writers including J. M. Synge , Seán O'Casey , and Padraic Colum , Yeats

9991-691: Was nearby and William spent a great deal of time there, where he met many of the city's artists and writers. During this period he started writing poetry, and, in 1885, the Dublin University Review published Yeats's first poems, as well as an essay entitled "The Poetry of Sir Samuel Ferguson ". Between 1884 and 1886, William attended the Metropolitan School of Art—now the National College of Art and Design —in Thomas Street . In March 1888

10094-471: Was one of the few works from this period that he did not disown in his maturity. Oisin introduces what was to become one of his most important themes: the appeal of the life of contemplation over the appeal of the life of action. Following the work, Yeats never again attempted another long poem. His other early poems, which are meditations on the themes of love or mystical and esoteric subjects, include Poems (1895), The Secret Rose (1897), and The Wind Among

10197-402: Was one of those responsible for the establishment of the " Irish Literary Revival " movement. Apart from these creative writers, much of the impetus for the Revival came from the work of scholarly translators who were aiding in the discovery of both the ancient sagas and Ossianic poetry and the more recent folk song tradition in Irish. One of the most significant of these was Douglas Hyde , later

10300-544: Was re-appointed for a second term in 1925. Early in his tenure, a debate on divorce arose, and Yeats viewed the issue as primarily a confrontation between the emerging Roman Catholic ethos and the Protestant minority. When the Roman Catholic Church weighed in with a blanket refusal to consider their anti position, The Irish Times countered that a measure to outlaw divorce would alienate Protestants and "crystallise"

10403-470: Was replaced by Studies . Many of the leading literary lights of the time contributed to it. In 1897 Hyde became editor, with T. W. Rolleston and Charles Gavan Duffy, of the New Irish Library , a series of books on Irish history and literature issued by the London publisher, Fisher Unwin. Two years later Hyde published his Literary history of Ireland . Yeats, Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn published

10506-406: Was serialized in the Dublin University Review . Yeats wished to include it in his first collection, but it was deemed too long, and in fact, was never republished in his lifetime. Quinx Books published the poem in complete form for the first time in 2014. His first solo publication was the pamphlet Mosada: A Dramatic Poem (1886), which comprised a print run of 100 copies paid for by his father. This

10609-586: Was the scholarship on Japanese Noh plays that Pound had obtained from Ernest Fenollosa 's widow, which provided Yeats with a model for the aristocratic drama he intended to write. The first of his plays modelled on Noh was At the Hawk's Well , the first draft of which he dictated to Pound in January 1916. The emergence of a nationalist revolutionary movement from the ranks of the mostly Roman Catholic lower-middle and working class made Yeats reassess some of his attitudes. In

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