One of Ireland"s finest writers, William Butler Yeats served a long apprenticeship in the arts before his genius was fully developed. He did some of his greatest work after he was fifty. Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland, on June 13, 1865. His father was a lawyer-turned-Irish painter. In 1867 the family followed him to London and settled in Bedford Park. In 1881 they returned to Dublin, where Yeats studied the Metropolitan School of Art. Yeats spent much time with his grandparents in County Sligo in northwestern Ireland. The scenery and folklore of this region greatly influenced Yeats" work. For...
Pound became his fencing master and secretary during the winters of 1913 and 1914, and was a friend and confidante for the remainder of this life. The suggestive, beautiful lyricism of Yeats' early career including such works as the famous 'Sailing to Byzantium' changed to the tune of spare and tragic bitterness as Ireland faced certain war in the early 1910s. This was apparent in Yeats poem "September 1913" in which he stated: Romantic Irelands dead and gone." During the civil war Irish Free State soldiers burned many of Yeats letters to Maud Gonne when they raided her house.