Poet · 1865 – 1939
William Butler Yeats
Little-Known Facts
- His poem 'The Second Coming' is among the most quoted in modern English, especially in times of crisis.
- He served as a senator of the newly independent Irish Free State.
Myths & Misconceptions
Was Yeats a Romantic or a modern poet?
He was both — he began in a lush late-Romantic style and evolved into one of the great modern poets, his late work spare and powerful.