Y is for William Butler YEATS

 

ABC Wednesday

July 2nd, 2014

The letter is Y, for William Butler YEATS

Born in Dublin in June of 1865 William Butler Yeats was a member of the Protestant Anglo-Irish minority that controlled much of Irish economics.

Despite spending the first fourteen years of his life in England he was a fervent Irish patriot.

Many of his poems were about Irish legends, folklore and ballads, and he was very much inclined towards the Occult, being, with his wife, a member of the ‘Golden Dawn’, a society of mysticism and occult symbolism.

Yeats is considered one of the greatest poets of his century, and here is one of his famous poems based on the Irish legend  of Diarmuid and Grania, two lovers frustrated and destroyed by the machinations of the Irish Finn.  Lovely imagery.

A Faery Song

(Sung by the people of Faery over Diarmuid and Grania in their bridal sleep under a Cromlech)

We who are old, old and gay,

O so old!

Thousands of years, thousands of years,

If all were told;

Give to these children, new from the world,

Silence and love;

And the long dew-dropping hours of the night,

And the stars above:

Give to these children, new from the world,

Rest far from men.

Is anything better, anything better?

Tell us it then:

Us who are old, old and gay.

O, so old!

Thousands of years, thousands of years,

If all were told.

William Butler Yeats

For more interesting Ys visit here at ABC Wednesday, with thanks to Denise, Roger and helpers.