William Butler Yeats was a major figure in the cultural revolution which developed from the strong nationalistic movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. From his experience in the twentieth century Ireland, William Yeats developed a unique poetic style, emphasizing Irish nationalism and expressing Transcendentalist philosophies; these ideas are expressed in Lake Isle of Innisfree and When You Are Old.
William Butler Yeats was born on June 13, 1865 in Dublin, Ireland, to John Butler Yeats and Susan Pollexfen. Yeats spent much of his early life in London, where his father studied art, but often traveled back to Ireland. In 1885, an important year in Yeats's early adult life, he saw his first publication, in the Dublin University Review, of his poetry and the beginning of his interest in occultism. Yeats had been a theosophist, but by 1890 he joined the Golden Dawn, a secret society that practiced ritual magic ("William Butler Yeats").
Although William had success writing in his early life, his greatest accomplishments came in his later years. In 1899 Yeats and fellow Irish writers worked to create the Irish Literary Theatre to hold Irish related plays. After many years the Theatre was still unsuccessful until Yeats teamed with other Irish nationalist
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The speaker, talking to his lover, gives her detailed instructions to open the book in which this poem can be found and to read it. While reading, she should recall all the people that loved her for both true and false reasons, largely because of her beauty. The Yeats goes on to tell the lover that there was one man, more than likely the speaker, who loved her unconditionally. In the last stanza, the speaker tells his former lover that she should never forget that this love did not last, and she should be filled with regret because of it ("When You Are