An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Famous Poem
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
William Butler Yeats
About William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet born in Dublin on June 13, 1865. Yeats started out by studying painting, but he found his true passion was for poetry, which he began to pursue. In addition to writing, Yeats was strongly involved in the politics of Ireland and was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922. He was involved in the Celtic Revival, which was a movement to rid Ireland of England's cultural influence.
Many of Yeats' poems showed his love and pride for Irish subjects. Some, like those in his collection The Wind among the Reeds (1899), showed his interest in occultism and spiritualism. In 1890 he had joined the Golden Dawn, which was a secret society that practiced ritual magic. He took part in automatic writing, where the hand and pen were instruments for information to be shared from the spirit world.
Another one of Yeats' interests included the theater. He founded the Irish National Theatre Society of which he was president.
For his outstanding work, Yeats received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
He passed away in 1939 at the age of 73.
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When You Are Old
Famous Poem
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
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And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;Featured Shared StoryIn this poem, Yeats has used a universal theme. In their youth, many behave in a thoughtless manner and they miss certain things in life. Through his personal experience, Yeats makes the...
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To A Young Girl
Famous Poem
My dear, my dear, I know
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More than another
What makes your heart beat so;
Not even your own mother
Poems by William Butler Yeats
Quotes by William Butler Yeats
We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry