Yeats

[yeyts]

noun

1. William Butler, 1865–1939, Irish poet, dramatist, and essayist: Nobel Prize 1923.

Yeats

/ jeɪts /

noun

1. Jack Butler. 1871–1957, Irish painter

2. his brother W ( illiam ) B ( utler ). 1865–1939, Irish poet and dramatist. His collections of verse include Responsibilities (1914), The Tower (1928), and The Winding Stair (1929). Among his plays are The Countess Cathleen (1892) and Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902); he was a founder of the Irish National Theatre Company at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1923

Other Word Forms

• Yeatsian adjective

Example Sentences

The famous line of William Butler Yeats, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity” applies to political behavior.

From Salon

In the words of the Yeats poem, "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world… Surely some revelation is at hand."

From Salon

As William Butler Yeats famously told us at another precarious moment in history, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer ... the centre cannot hold.”

From Los Angeles Times

President Joe Biden slouched off to Bethlehem in his best William Butler Yeats fashion Wednesday night, speaking to the American people for the last time as president.

From Salon

“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold,” Yeats declared, and the nation’s once-sturdy institutions now falter under the weight of authoritarian ambition and widespread complicity.

From Salon