William Butler Yeats Research Paper

A poet and didn’t know it is a catchy phrase that could easily describe William Butler Yeats early life. Yeats was a boy who lived in London but was born in Dublin Ireland and who would grow up to write poetry about the Irish life style and their traditions trying to keep them alive. The question is why did William Butler Yeats cares about the Irish traditions and the people of Ireland? William Butler Yeats even though he lived in London he spent most of his childhood with his grandparents in Sligo Ireland, and with that he grew up around their traditions and customs and saw how they were losing all the traditions and began to feel concerned. William butler Yeats believed in Ireland because of his family. His mother would speak of leprechauns …show more content…
William and his Grandparents where very close and that is the reason he felt so close to Ireland. His grandparents where very traditional Irish folk and they ended up teaching Yeats many of the old traditions. Yeats's interest in Ireland, especially its folktales, fueled much of his output. The title work of The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889) draws from the story of a mythic Irish hero. That is where the love for the old ways started it was with his grandparents and mysticism, (http://www.biography.com/people/william-butler-yeats-9538857) William wanted to remind people of the old ways and traditions that where actually going extinct. Yeats lived in a world where he was expected to identify with his Protestant tradition but he did not seem to agree with them. (Encyclopedia Britannica) He didn’t side with the Roman Catholics and didn’t believe in the Protestants concern for material he actually felt more attached to the pagans. Because of that Yeats felt that he would rather cultivate the true Irish traditions that where hidden in Ireland than side with anyone else. Yeats would latter mold much of his poetry around the old traditions and pagan beliefs of Ireland. Its scenery, folklore, and supernatural legend—would color Yeats’s work and form the setting of many of his poems. (Encyclopedia Britannica) William Butler Yeats started his poetry in 1880 …show more content…
In fact it would be as some people say “Repellent” to Yeats. He was known as a visionary and would rather surround himself with poetic images than anything else. Yeats began studying different works by William Blake and by doing so brought him into contact with other traditions such as Platonic intimate and affectionate, the Neoplatonic (Abstract) and Swedenborgian (modern), and the alchemy. Yeats with all his work and sense of artistic style he became involved in the literary life of London. He was friends with William Morris and W.E. Henley and was a cofounder of thee Rhymers’ Club. Some of the members of this club actually included some of his friends like Lionel Johnson and Arthur Symons. In 1889 when Yeats met Maud Gonne an Irish woman who was beautiful, enthusiastic, and brilliant he was in love with her by the time he wrote “the troubling of my life began” “Without this romantic torment, “Willie would never have become Yeats the poet that we know today. Equal to Ireland itself Maud Gonne became and remained the major wellspring of Yeats’s poetic endeavor” (Steven Payne) It was an unrequited love meaning no matter how much he loved her it was a hopeless venture. It is true that she did admire him and looked up to him but did not love him. Yeats latter joined the Irish nationalist cause he joined partly