William Butler Yeats was an Irish native having been born in Dublin, on June 13, 1865. Considered by some to be the greatest English-language poet of the 20th century, Yeats focused on trying to bring his various living experiences, his Irish heritage, his time in London, and his interest in the occult under one umbrella of understanding.

Considered a modernist, Yeats did not follow other modernists with free verse experimentation. Instead, he was deemed a master of the traditional verse forms. His poetry featured two distinct qualities that Yeats valued throughout his life, the two virtues of passion and joy.

Yeats' poetry, particularly its symbolism is not easily understood. He sought to keep the full meaning of his words hidden unless the reader were familiar with both his thought pattern and the traditions of the time in which he worked.

Yeats' roles as a poet and as a public man earned him great recognition. At the end of the Anglo-Irish war in 1922, he became a senator of the Irish Free State. One year later, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

Maid Quiet

Where has Maid Quiet gone to,
Nodding her russet hood?
The winds that awakened the stars
Are blowing through my blood.
O how could I be so calm
When she rose up to depart?
Now words that called up the lightning
Are hurtling through my heart.