One of the standing exhibitions hosted at the National Library of Ireland, located in Dublin, is devoted to the life and works of William Butler Yeats in its Main Building at 2/3 Kildare Street.
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was one of the great poets of the twentieth century. He created works that are widely known and loved. Yeats was a man of many interests – Ireland, literature, folklore, theatre, politics, the occult – and a significant influence on modern Irish cultural identity.
The National Library of Ireland has the largest collection of Yeats manuscripts in the world and, in addition, holds other fascinating Yeats material generously donated by Mrs George Yeats, wife of the poet, and Michael Yeats, the poet’s son, over several years.
Wikipedia notes:
“In March 1890 Yeats joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and with Ernest Rhys[21] co-founded the Rhymers’ Club, a group of London-based poets who met regularly in a Fleet Street tavern to recite their verse. Yeats later sought to mythologize the collective, calling it the “Tragic Generation” in his autobiography,[22] and published two anthologies of the Rhymers’ work, the first one in 1892 and the second one in 1894. He collaborated with Edwin Ellis on the first complete edition of William Blake’s works, in the process rediscovering a forgotten poem, “Vala, or, the Four Zoas”.[23][24]
“Yeats had a life-long interest in mysticism, spiritualism, occultism and astrology. He read extensively on the subjects throughout his life, became a member of the paranormal research organisation “The Ghost Club” (in 1911) and was especially influenced by the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.[25] As early as 1892, he wrote: “If I had not made magic my constant study I could not have written a single word of my Blake book, nor would The Countess Kathleen ever have come to exist. The mystical life is the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write.”[26] His mystical interests—also inspired by a study of Hinduism, under the Theosophist Mohini Chatterjee, and the occult—formed much of the basis of his late poetry.”
Read the whole entry here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats
As most Thelemites know, he locked horns with fellow Golden Dawn initiate Aleister Crowley on more than one occasion on matters of the occult and poetry.
You can take a virtual tour of the exhibition here: http://www.nli.ie/yeats/
pix originally posted by Dr. R. Kaczynski
