W. B. Yeats

Immerse yourself in the visionary world of William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), the Irish poet, playwright, and mystic widely regarded as the greatest poet of the twentieth century and one of the supreme masters of the English language. Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923, and his work — spanning lyric poetry, verse drama, autobiography, and occult philosophy — stands as one of the most extraordinary achievements in literary history. His poems move between the intensely personal and the mythically vast, drawing on Irish folklore, Celtic mythology, Neoplatonism, and his own elaborate mystical system to create a body of work of unparalleled richness and depth. Among his most celebrated poems are The Lake Isle of Innisfree, When You Are Old, The Second Coming, Easter, 1916, Sailing to Byzantium, and Among School Children. As co-founder of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, he was also central to the Irish Literary Revival. His prose works include the mystical A Vision and his celebrated Autobiographies. Essential reading for every lover of poetry and literature.