W. B. Yeats W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served as a Senator of the Irish Free State for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others. Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland and educated there and in London. He spent childhood holidays in County Sligo and studied poetry from an early age when
Mary Colum visitor amongst the salons, readings and debates there. After graduation in 1909 she taught with Louise Gavan Duffy at St Ita's - a companion school to Patrick Pearse's St. Enda's School. She was active with Thomas MacDonagh and others in national and cultural causes. She co-founded "The Irish Review" (1911–14) with David Houston, Thomas MacDonagh et al. and she and her husband Padraic edited the magazine for some months of its four-year career. She was encouraged by Yeats to specialise in French literary criticism and to translate Paul Claudel. She married Padraic Colum in July 1912, and they moved to