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
“If soul may look and body touch,
Which is the more blest?”
The Lady's Second Song http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1639/, st. 3
Last Poems (1936-1939)
The Scholars http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1682/, st. 2
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
Letter to George William Russell (1 July 1921)
The Great Day http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1626/
Last Poems (1936-1939)
St. 7
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), A Prayer For My Daughter http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1421/
St. 1
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/
An Acre of Grass http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1438/, st. 2
Last Poems (1936-1939)
“Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes,
Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.”
Lapis Lazuli, st. 5
Last Poems (1936-1939)
The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, II, preliminary poem (1908)
To A Young Beauty http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1728/, st. 3
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
“Odour of blood when Christ was slain
Made all platonic tolerance vain
And vain all Doric discipline.”
II, st. 1
The Tower (1928), Two Songs From a Play http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1741/
John Kinsella’s Lament For Mrs. Mary Moore http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1520/', st. 1
Last Poems (1936-1939)
“Does the imagination dwell the most
Upon a woman won or woman lost?”
The Tower, II, st. 13
The Tower (1928)
Letter to Olivia Shakespear (24 March 1927)
“O what fine thought we had because we thought
That the worst rogues and rascals had died out.”
I, st. 2
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/
In Memory Of Major Robert Gregory, st. 12
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
“Players and painted stage took all my love,
And not those things that they were emblems of.”
The Circus Animals' Desertion http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1603/, II, st. 3.
Last Poems (1936-1939)
“Nothing that we love over-much
Is ponderable to our touch.”
Towards Break of Day http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1740/, st. 3
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)
“Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of all.”
St. 3
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/
“I knew a phoenix in my youth, so let them have their day.”
His Phoenix http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1510/, refrain
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)
“Seek out reality, leave things that seem.”
Fonte: The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), Vacillation http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1751/, VII
Into The Twilight http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1519/, st. 4
The Wind Among the Reeds (1899)
To A Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1724/
The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)
Parnell's Funeral and Other Poems http://worldebooklibrary.com/eBooks/WorldeBookLibrary.com/ytpafu.htm (1935). Supernatural Songs http://worldebooklibrary.com/eBooks/WorldeBookLibrary.com/ytpafu.htm#1_0_7