W.B. Yeats (1865-1939)

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish modernist poet and playwright influential in the Irish Literary Revival. He was also a co-founder of the Abbey Theatre.

Yeats is very common on the GRE. You'll recognize many postwar book titles among his poems--Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem, for example, and McCarthy's No Country for Old Men.

Associate the following works with Yeats. Short poems should be read at least once before the exam. Poems in bold should be read multiple times.

1. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (parodied by Pound)
2. "When You Are Old"
3. "The Wild Swans at Coole"
4. "The Second Coming"
5. "Sailing to Byzantium"
6. "Leda and the Swan"
7. "Crazy Jane Talks With the Bishop"
8. "Among Schoolchildren"
9. "The Dolls"