W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (pron.: // YAYTS; 13 June 1865
– 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost
figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish
and British literary establishments, in his later years he
served as an Irish Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving
force behind the Irish Literary Revival and, along with Lady
Gregory, Edward Martyn, and others, founded the Abbey Theatre,
where he served as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irishman
so honoured for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired
poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the
spirit of a whole nation." Yeats is generally considered one of
the few writers who completed their greatest works after being
awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929). Yeats was a very good
friend of American expatriate poet and Bollingen Prize laureate
Ezra Pound. Yea