William Butler Yeats, muitas vezes apenas designado por W.B. Yeats , foi um poeta, dramaturgo e místico irlandês. Atuou ativamente no Renascimento Literário Irlandês e foi co-fundador do Abbey Theatre.
Suas obras iniciais eram caracterizadas por tendência romântica exuberante e fantasiosa, que transparece no título da sua colectânea de 1893, The Celtic Twilight . Posteriormente, por volta dos seus 40 anos, e em resultado da sua relação com poetas modernistas, como Ezra Pound, e também do seu envolvimento activo no nacionalismo irlandês, seu estilo torna-se mais austero e moderno.
Foi também senador irlandês, cargo que exerceu com dedicação e seriedade. Foi galardoado com o Nobel de Literatura de 1923. O Comité de entrega do prémio justificou a sua decisão pela "sua poesia sempre inspirada, que através de uma forma de elevado nível artístico dá expressão ao espírito de toda uma nação." Em 1934 compartilhou o Prémio Gothenburg para poesia com Rudyard Kipling.
Wikipedia
“Espalhei meus sonhos aos seus pés. Caminhe devagar, pois você estará pisando neles.”
I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Later poems - Página 41 http://books.google.com.br/books?id=zxdFeN43VhoC&pg=PA41, William Butler Yeats - Forgotten Books, 1924, ISBN 1605061484, 9781605061481 - 363 páginas
Fonte: Revista Caras http://www.caras.com.br, Edição de Terça-feira, 17 de outubro de 2006.
“Nos sonhos começa a responsabilidade.”
In dreams begins responsibility.
Later poems - Página 146 http://books.google.com.br/books?id=zxdFeN43VhoC&pg=PA146, William Butler Yeats - Forgotten Books, 1924, ISBN 1605061484, 9781605061481 - 363 páginas
“Nenhum homem viveu que tivesse suficiente: gratidão de crianças e amor de mulher.”
No man has ever lived that had enough. Of children's gratitude or woman's love.
Vacillation http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1751/, III, st. 1
“Pense como sábio, mas se expresse na língua do povo.”
Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.
citado em "Modern quotations for ready reference", Arthur Richmond - Dover Publications, 1947 - 502 páginas
Think where man's glory most begins and ends, And say my glory was I had such friends.
The poems of William Butler Yeats - Página 244, William Butler Yeats - Hayes Barton Press, 1956, ISBN 1593772270, 9781593772277
“O poema é o ato social de uma pessoa solitária.”
a poem is a social act done by a solitary man
William Butler Yeats citado in: Prodigal Father: The Life of John Butler Yeats (1839-1922) - Página 516 http://books.google.com.br/books?id=orrgEXRRREAC&pg=PA516, William Michael Murphy - Syracuse University Press, 2001, ISBN 0815607253, 9780815607250, 680 páginas
Atribuídas
The Choice http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1602/, st. 1
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)
The Lake Isle of Innisfree http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1641/, st. 1
The Rose (1893)
Contexto: I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
St. 3
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), A Prayer For My Daughter http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1421/
I, st. 4
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/
St. 3
The Tower (1928), Sailing to Byzantium http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1575/
Speech (3 March 1926), Seanad Éireann (Irish Free Senate), on the Coinage Bill. http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0006/S.0006.192603030003.html
“O when may it suffice?
That is heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name.”
St. 4
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/
V, st. 3
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/
St. 1
In The Seven Woods (1904), Adam's Curse http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1431/
“Pardon, old fathers, if you still remain
Somewhere in ear-shot for the story’s end.”
Responsibilities - Introduction http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1572/
Responsibilities (1914)
V, st. 2
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/
The Wild Swans At Coole http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1712/, st. 1
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
The Seven Sages http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1685/
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)
“All perform their tragic play,
There struts Hamlet, there is Lear,
That’s Ophelia, that Cordelia.”
Lapis Lazuli http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1522/, st. 2
Last Poems (1936-1939)
St. 3
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/
Lullaby http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1527/, st. 1
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)
The Countess Cathleen http://www.letras.ufrj.br/veralima/6_referencias/63_e_texts_2005/yeats/countess_cathleen/yeats_countess_cathleen_2005.htm, last lines (1892)
“Only God, my dear,
Could love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair.”
For Anne Gregory http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1483/, st. 3
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)
St. 2
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/
No Second Troy http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1548/
The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)
V, st. 4
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/
St. 4.
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/
Contexto: I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
“Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.”
Under Ben Bulben, VI
Last Poems (1936-1939)
Leda and the Swan http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1523/, st. 3
The Tower (1928)
“They say such different things at school.”
Michael Robartes and the Dancer
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)
“The only business of the head in the world is to bow a ceaseless obeisance to the heart.”
Letter to Frederick J. Gregg (undated, Sligo, late summer, 1886)
The Magi http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1652/
Responsibilities (1914)