W. B. Yeats

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Standard Name: Yeats, W. B.
Used Form: William Butler Yeats
Used Form: Willie Yeats
WBY , who began publishing well before the end of the nineteenth century, is regarded as one of the most important twentieth-century poets in English, and one of the most international of Irish writers. He was early involved in the Irish Literary Revival, and wrote early, highly romantic lyrics on Celtic and fairy themes. Later he made poetry out of the search for a poetic language. Some of his later work is affected by his interest in the occult.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Occupation Florence Farr
W. B. Yeats and FF gave a lecture on Poetry and the Living Voice at Clifford's Inn in Fleet Street: Yeats presented his theory of musical recitation, and then Farr illustrated by chanting a...
Occupation Augusta Gregory
The first idea for the Irish Literary Theatre developed as AG , W. B. Yeats , and Edward Martyn were discussing the latter's play Maeve, and asked themselves why it could not be staged...
Occupation Edith Craig
The costumes were judged to be a success, and the performance marked a turning point in her theatrical career. She branched into costume design (having formed a company, Edith Craig and Co. , which was...
Occupation Frances Horovitz
Patrick Magee , Harvey Hall , Stevie Smith , Hugh Dickson , and Basil Jones were the other readers for the project. The poets from whose work they read included W. B. Yeats , D. H. Lawrence
Occupation John Millington Synge
In September 1905, JMS , along with Yeats and Lady Gregory , became directors of the company. George Russell and Fred Ryan were also administrators for the Irish National Theatre Society .
Benson, Eugene. J. M. Synge. Macmillan, 1982.
11-12
Saddlemyer, Ann. “Introduction and Chronology”. The Collected Letters of John Millington Synge, Oxford University Press, 1983, p. ix - xxvi.
xxiv
Kiely, David M. John Millington Synge: A Biography. Gill and Macmillan, 1994.
156
Occupation Florence Farr
Annie Horniman , whom FF met through the Order of the Golden Dawn , agreed to back the season financially. Farr succeeded in persuading Yeats to write a one-act play for her season, and enlisted...
Occupation Maud Gonne
MG played the heroine in Augusta Gregory 's and Yeats 's Cathleen ni Houlihan in the Irish National Theatre 's production, opening on 2 April 1902. This role made her a symbol of the nation.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
McGuire, James, and James Quinn, editors. Dictionary of Irish Biography. 2009, http://dib.cambridge.org/.
Occupation Florence Farr
FF retired temporarily from the stage in 1897, disappointed at not having received the same recognition as other New Woman actresses (Elizabeth Robins , for instance).
Johnson, Josephine. Florence Farr: Bernard Shaw’s new woman. Colin Smythe, 1975.
67
She returned a few years later to...
Occupation Q. D. Leavis
Working again through the British Council , Q. D. and F. R. Leavis lectured on Austen , Eliot , and Yeats in Rome, Milan, Padua, and Bologna.
Singh, G., and Q. D. Leavis. F.R. Leavis: A Literary Biography. Duckworth, 1995.
283-4
Literary responses Katharine Tynan
W. B. Yeats wrote to her of this book: You have the gift to describe many people with sympathy and even with admiration and yet to leave them their distinct characters.
qtd. in
Hinkson, Pamela. “The Friendship of Yeats and Katharine Tynan, II: Later Days of the Irish Literary Movement”. The Fortnightly, No. 1043 n.s., Nov. 1953, pp. 323-36.
331
Literary responses Martin Ross
Most of the reviews were excellent, but the Westminster Gazette gave the book a furious tearing.
qtd. in
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
103
Just from excerpts quoted in reviews, W. B. Yeats judged the book to be very big.
qtd. in
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber, 1968.
129
Literary responses Charlotte Brooke
CB was warmly appreciated in Ireland. She influenced there a parallel effort to preserve traditional music as she had preserved traditional words: that of Edward Bunting , who edited in 1796 the first volume...
Literary responses James Joyce
Though Joyce often railed against hisnative city, he felt that depicting it made him a pioneer. Dublin, he wrote, was second only to London among British cities and was three times the size of Venice:...
Literary responses Florence Farr
Reviews were mixed: some found the plays bizarre, and others (including Yeats ) admired their religious fervour.
Johnson, Josephine. Florence Farr: Bernard Shaw’s new woman. Colin Smythe, 1975.
91
They were revived for a charity performance in London in August 1993.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Literary responses Dorothy Wellesley
Yeats 's introduction praised her for uniting a modern subject and vocabulary with traditional richness.
Yeats, W. B., and Dorothy Wellesley. “Introduction”. Selections from the Poems of Dorothy Wellesley, Macmillan, 1936, p. vii - xv.
x
As well as Horses, he particularly praised Matrix.

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