Narrative By Hand

William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, was known during his lifetime as an important cultural leader, a major playwright, and one of the founders of the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Concentrating on Irish subjects, the mythology as well as the symbols of everyday traditions, he considered poetry the best medium for depicting the full complexity of life. Also a potent influence was the Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne, whom he courted for thirty years. Yeats used the occasion of winning the Nobel Prize in 1923 to promote Irish nationalism. He is buried in County Sligo.

By Hand

by William Butler Yeats

In his poem “Adam’s Curse” Yeats notes,

A line will take us hours maybe;
Yet if it does not seem a moment’s thought,
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.

True to these lines, the poet’s handwritten manuscripts and annotated proof pages reveal his focused care.

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