History Creator / WilliamButlerYeats

* MagicalSociety: Was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and was close to its founder Samuel Mathers. He even had a WizardDuel with Creator/AleisterCrowley at one point, leading the defence of the Temple of Isis Eurania during the Battle of Blithe Road.

This guy is responsible for a lot of the StockQuotes floating around in pop culture. His poem "Literature/TheSecondComing" is the source of many {{Literary Allusion Title}}s and is his most famous and most referenced work[[note]]outside Ireland that is; ''in'' Ireland "Sailing to Byzantium" and "September 1913" are probably better known; "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" was voted the nation's favourite poem in an Irish Times poll.[[/note]]. If you hear a FauxlosophicNarration, read a snippet of poetry preceding a bunch of prose or even see a character trying to sound deep and meaningful, there is a reasonably good chance that William Butler Yeats is being quoted.

* TheKidnapper: "The Stolen Child" is about some fairies who snatch a child away because... well,

->''Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,''\\
''Enwrought with golden and silver light,''\\
''The blue and the dim and the dark cloths,''\\
''Of night and light and the half light,''\\
''I would spread the cloths under your feet:''\\
''But I, being poor, have only my dreams;''\\
''I have spread my dreams under your feet;''\\
''Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.''

-->-- "Aed Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven"

* DesignatedVillain: "September 1913" attacks the Catholic merchant middle classes for being greedy and materialistic. It was inspired by the city council not wanting to give money to open an art gallery at the request of Hugh Lane...right when living conditions in the city were terrible. So chances are they might not have wanted to splash out on something quite so frivolous.

Also, his last name [[ItIsPronouncedTroPay is pronounced]] "Yates," not "Yeets."

* SwansASwimming: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "The Wild Swans at Coole"]]

[[quoteright:236:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yeats1903.jpg]]

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an [[{{Oireland}} Irish]] poet, UsefulNotes/{{Nobel Prize|in Literature}} winner and well-known/[[SmallReferencePools often-cited]] literary figure. He was inspired by [[Myth/IrishMythology Irish myth and folklore]] as well as the writings of Creator/WilliamBlake.

* {{Arcadia}}: He viewed the place he spent his summers in Sligo as this. He expresses his desire to live this way permanently in "The Lake Isle of Inishfree".

* "Literature/TheSecondComing": "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,/Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

* "Literature/TheSecondComing"

* BrokenBird: He laments that this happened to two female Irish revolutionaries and suffragettes that he knew in his youth, in "In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markevicz."[[note]](Despite its title, written while both were still alive.)[[/note]] One was sentenced to death (commuted to prison time) for taking part in a revolt, and the other one lived out a sad life pursuing radical politics. The poem ends with Yeats lighting a match and [[MindScrew threatening to burn down]] ''[[MindScrew time]]'' [[MindScrew itself]] for doing this to them, saying that "the innocent and beautiful/have no enemy but time."

Also, his last name [[ItsPronouncedTroPay is pronounced]] "Yates," not "Yeets."

->''Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,''\\