William Butler Yeats

    Yeats was a magnificent Irish poet and writer. He had much inspiration in the world around him.  Nature was a big inspiration for him as evident in his poems:

The Stolen Child

Wild Swans at Coole Park

Isle of Innisfree

 

    However, also inspiring him were the local myths and legends. I had the pleasure of hearing of three of this local legends which inspired Yeats.  These and many others were both written and passed on orally as a great part of the culture that Yeats grew up around and later wrote about.

The Children of Lir

Diarmuid and Grainne

Oisin in Tir na nOg

Queen Maeve

The Drinking Song

Additional Yeats' Info