William Butler Yeats

LitCharts guides for works by William Butler Yeats

Explore LitCharts poetry guides for works by William Butler Yeats. Each guide offers line-by-line analysis, exploration of poetic devices, and helpful resources for studying William Butler Yeats's poetry.

A Prayer for my Daughter

The Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote “A Prayer for my Daughter” in 1919, two days after the birth of his daughter, Anne, and included it in his 1921 collection, Michael Robartes and the Dancer... view guide

Adam's Curse

"Adam's Curse" is a poem that portrays poetry, love, and beauty in general as hard work. The speaker discusses these subjects with the woman he loves, along with her "close friend," on a late-summe... view guide

Among School Children

William Butler Yeats published "Among School Children" in his famous 1928 collection of poems, The Tower. Yeats was in his sixties at the time and (like the speaker in this poem) served as an Irish... view guide

An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

“An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” was written by the Irish poet W.B. Yeats in 1918. Told from the perspective of an Irish fighter pilot in World War I, the poem is critical of both the war in ge... view guide

Byzantium

"Byzantium" is Irish poet W.B. Yeats's meditation on the relationship between mortality and immortality, the physical world and the spiritual world, and humanity and art. In this complex, mysteriou... view guide

Easter, 1916

"Easter, 1916," was written by the Irish poet W.B. Yeats to commemorate the Easter Rising in 1916, in which Irish nationalists led a rebellion to win independence from British rule. The leaders of ... view guide

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

"He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" is one of Irish poet W. B. Yeats's most famous works. In this short poem, a lover wishes that he could spread the "heavens' embroidered cloths" out at his belov... view guide

In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz

W. B. Yeats wrote "In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz" in 1927, soon after the deaths of Gore-Booth and Markievicz, two prominent sisters from an aristocratic family. Years earlier, Yea... view guide

Lapis Lazuli

Written in 1938, a year of ominous upheaval in Europe, W. B. Yeats's "Lapis Lazuli" meditates on the rise and fall of civilizations and the redemptive role of the artist in society. As war looms on... view guide

Leda and the Swan

In his poem “Leda and the Swan,” William Butler Yeats retells the classic Greek myth in which Leda, a human woman, is impregnated by the god Zeus while he is in the form of a swan. This conception ... view guide

Sailing to Byzantium

“Sailing to Byzantium,” by the Irish poet W.B. Yeats (1865-1939), reflects on the difficulty of keeping one’s soul alive in a fragile, failing human body. The speaker, an old man, leaves behind the... view guide

September 1913

W. B. Yeats's "September 1913" condemns the political complacency of the Irish middle class and challenges readers to reflect on the examples set by revolutionaries who fiercely fought for Ireland'... view guide

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

William Butler Yeats wrote “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” one of his most famous and widely-anthologized works, in 1888. The poem gets its title from a very small, uninhabited island that sits in Lo... view guide

The Second Coming

"The Second Coming" is one of W.B. Yeats's most famous poems. Written in 1919 soon after the end of World War I, it describes a deeply mysterious and powerful alternative to the Christian idea of t... view guide

The Song of Wandering Aengus

First printed in 1897 and collected in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), W. B. Yeats's "The Song of Wandering Aengus" is a dramatic monologue about burning and thwarted passion. Written in the voice... view guide

The Wild Swans at Coole

"The Wild Swans at Coole" is a poem by W.B. Yeats, published in a collection of the same name in 1917. Written when Yeats was in his 50s, the poem sees a speaker visiting Coole Park in Ireland (a p... view guide

To a Shade

"To a Shade" is a poem from W. B. Yeats's 1916 collection Responsibilities and Other Poems (first published as Responsibilities and a Play, 1914). Written in 1913, it addresses the ghost ("Shade") ... view guide

When You Are Old

"When You Are Old" is a poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. In the poem, which is published in Yeats's second collection, The Rose (1893), the speaker asks someone to think ahead to old ag... view guide