by Claire Chock

Created on: July 28, 2009

W. B. Yeats was a man well known for esotericism, his efforts to revive Irish literature and work on Noh drama. Most of all, he's known for his poetry and its symbolism. drawn from his esoteric belief. He was a man of great passion and affected by the people and events of his life. From birth he was affected by the people around him. He was born June 13th, 1865 in Dublin, Ireland. He spent his childhood and teen years bouncing between London and either Sligo or Dublin, Ireland because of his father's work as a struggling artist. Unpleasant experiences in London and his mother's (Susan Pollexfen) stories about her childhood in Sligo engendered a strong love of Ireland in the young Yeats that would stay with him throughout life.

He met many of his acquaintances in his twenties; the most influentail one being Maude Gonne, whome Yeats fell deeply in love with and wrote many poems about. Another person he was influenced by was Madame Blavatsky, leader of the Theosphical Society. It was her writings and teachings that got him started down the read to esotericism. He joined the Order of the Golden Dawn in the late 1880's. Olivia Shakespear, Florence Farr, Lady Gregory and MacGregor Mathers were all people he met in his mid-late twenties and became good friends with. He was quite politically minded at this time as well.

In his 30's he began plans for beginning an Irish National Theatre and began writing plays. He detached himself from politics for awhile and became involved in an Order of the Golden Dawn quarrel. He made his first North American lecture tour in 1903 and began the Abbey Theatre in 1904. His mother died in 1900.

In his 40's he made another trip, this time to Italy. His father left Ireland to live permanently in New York and his uncle, George Pollexfen, died in 1909. Yeats had an affair with Mabel Dickinson around this time and met Rabindranath Tagore, Ezra Pound and Georgie Hyde Lees who would later become his wife. He also discovered automatic writing around this time and lived with Ezra Pound at what has come to be called Stone Cottage.

In his 50's he began correspondance with James Joyce and started experimenting with Noh drama. He wrote the poem "Easter 1916" around this time about the uprising in Dublin on Easter monday and it was also the year that Florence Farr died of cancer. He married Georgie Hyde Lees on Oct. 20th, 1917, moved to Ireland with her in 1918 and their first child, Anne, was born Feb. 24th, 1919. He bought the famed, ' Thoor Ballylee' castle and met the Sinn Fein leader, De Valera, around this time. His son, Michael, was born Aug. 22nd, 1921. Yeats' father died a year later in 1922. Yeast was given honorary degrees from Queens University, Trinity College and Belfast University. He also rejoined politics, becoming a senator. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923 and was given an honorary degree from the University of Aberdeen.

His 60's were spent travelling alot because of declining health. He was given an honorary degree from Oxford University and met Shri Purohit Swami. His good friend Lady Gregory died in the late 1920's/ early 1930's. He also struck up a friendship with Ethel Mannin aroudn this time. A few years later in his 70's he met Dorothy Wellesley and his friend George Russell died. He also met Edith Shackelton Heald. Olivia Shakespear died around this time and Yeats himself died on Jan. 28th, 1939. He was interred in Italy but his grave was exhumed in 1948 so he could be buried in Ireland.

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