William Butler Yeats was born in 1865 in Ireland, and his childhood and adolescence were spent in Ireland and England. His lifelong concerns are evident in his earliest poetry: history, mythology, and the occult; soon he also took up politics and drama, and he helped found the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In 1922, he became a senator of the Irish Free State, and he won the Nobel Prize in 1923. The following poems represent his best work through 1921.

The S4N Pocket Poems Series presents classic long poems and books of poetry as they were originally presented, free of interpretation and notes, and in an attractive size that can be carried and read anywhere.