Editing W. B. Yeats (section)

== Early years ==

===Dublin===
William Butler Yeats was born in [[Sandymount]] in [[County Dublin]], Ireland.<ref name="NYTObit">Obituary. "[https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0D1FF73958127A93C2AA178AD85F4D8385F9 W. B. Yeats Dead] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928070935/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0D1FF73958127A93C2AA178AD85F4D8385F9 |date=28 September 2013}}". ''The New York Times'', 30 January 1939. Retrieved 21 May 2007.</ref> His father [[John Butler Yeats|John]] was a descendant of Jervis Yeats, a [[William III of England|Williamite]] soldier, linen merchant, and well-known painter, who died in 1712.<ref>[[Jeffares, A. Norman]]. ''W. B. Yeats, Man and Poet''. Palgrave Macmillan, 1996. 1.</ref> Benjamin Yeats, Jervis's grandson and William's great-great-grandfather, had in 1773<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Conner |first1=Lester I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glhvNnjjNagC&q=Benjamin+Yeats,+ancestor+of+the+poet,+married+Mary+Butler.&pg=PA197 |title=A Yeats Dictionary: Persons and Places in the Poetry of William Butler Yeats |last2=Conner |first2=Lester I. |date=2 May 1998 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-2770-8 |access-date=2 May 2018 |archive-date=26 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126084248/https://books.google.com/books?id=glhvNnjjNagC&q=Benjamin+Yeats,+ancestor+of+the+poet,+married+Mary+Butler.&pg=PA197 |url-status=live}}</ref> married Mary Butler<ref>''Limerick Chronicle'', 13 August 1763</ref> of a [[Landed gentry|landed]] family in [[County Kildare]].<ref name="family">{{Cite web |last=[[Margaret Phelan|Margaret M. Phelan]] |title=Journal of the Butler Society 1982. Gowran, its connection with the Butler Family |url=http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/w/i/l/Meredith-J-Wiltfong-CO/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0689.html |page=174 |access-date=11 May 2018 |archive-date=26 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226235932/http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/w/i/l/Meredith-J-Wiltfong-CO/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0689.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Following their marriage, they kept the name Butler. Mary was of the Butler of Neigham [[Gowran]] family, descended from an illegitimate brother of [[Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond|The 8th Earl of Ormond]].<ref>"Old Kilkenny Review", ''The Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society'', vol. 2, no. 1, 1979, p. 71.</ref> At the time of his marriage, his father, John, was studying law but later pursued art studies at [[Heatherley School of Fine Art]], in London.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ricorso: Digital materials for the study and appreciation of Anglo-Irish Literature |url=http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/index.htm |access-date=2 May 2018 |website=ricorso.net |archive-date=25 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725083231/http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/index.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> 

William's mother, [[Susan Pollexfen|Susan Mary Pollexfen]], from [[Sligo]], came from a wealthy merchant family, who owned a milling and shipping business. Soon after William's birth, the family relocated to the Pollexfen home at Merville, Sligo, to stay with her extended family, and the young poet came to think of the area as his childhood and spiritual home. Its landscape became, over time, both personally and symbolically, his "country of the heart".{{sfn|Yeats|1994|p=vii}} So too did its location by the sea; John Yeats stated that "by marriage with a Pollexfen, we have given a tongue to the sea cliffs".<ref>W. B. Yeats, ''Autobiographies'' (1956), p. 12. London: Macmillan.</ref> 

The Butler Yeats family were highly artistic; his brother [[Jack Butler Yeats|Jack]] became an esteemed painter, while his sisters [[Elizabeth Yeats|Elizabeth]] and [[Lily Yeats|Susan Mary]]—known to family and friends as Lollie and Lily—became involved in the [[Arts and Crafts movement]].<ref>Gordon Bowe, Nicola. "Two Early Twentieth-Century Irish Arts and Crafts Workshops in Context". ''Journal of Design History'', Vol. 2, No. 2/3 (1989). 193–206.</ref> Their cousin [[Ruth Pollexfen]], who was raised by the Yeats sisters after her parents' separation, designed the interior of the [[The Lodge, Australia|Australian prime minister's official residence]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE4870b.htm|title=Poole, Ruth Lane (1885 – 1974)|work=The Australian Women's Register|first=Maggie|last=Shapley|year=2013}}</ref>

Yeats was raised a member of the [[Protestant Ascendancy]], which was at the time undergoing a crisis of identity. While his family was supportive of the changes Ireland was experiencing, the nationalist revival of the late 19th century directly disadvantaged his heritage and informed his outlook for the remainder of his life. In 1997, his biographer [[R. F. Foster (historian)|R. F. Foster]] observed that [[Napoleon]]'s dictum that to understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty "is manifestly true of W.B.Y."{{sfn|Foster|1997|p=xxviii}} Yeats's childhood and young adulthood were shadowed by the power-shift away from the minority Protestant Ascendancy. The 1880s saw the rise of [[Charles Stewart Parnell]] and the [[home rule]] movement; the 1890s saw the momentum of [[nationalism]], while the [[Irish Catholics]] became prominent around the turn of the century. These developments had a profound effect on his poetry, and his subsequent explorations of Irish identity had a significant influence on the creation of his country's biography.{{sfn|Foster|1997|p=xxvii}}

In 1867, the family moved to England to aid their father, John, to further his career as an artist. At first, the Yeats children were educated at home. Their mother entertained them with stories and Irish folktales. John provided an erratic education in geography and chemistry and took William on natural history explorations of the nearby [[Slough]] countryside.{{sfn|Foster|1997|p=24}} On 26 January 1877, the young poet entered the [[Godolphin and Latymer School|Godolphin School]],{{sfn|Hone|1943|p=28}} which he attended for four years. He did not distinguish himself academically, and an early school report describes his performance as "only fair. Perhaps better in Latin than in any other subject. Very poor in spelling".{{sfn|Foster|1997|p=25}} Though he had difficulty with mathematics and languages (possibly because he was [[Tone deafness|tone deaf]]<ref>Sessa, Anne Dzamba; ''Richard Wagner and the English''; p. 130. {{ISBN|978-0-8386-2055-7}}</ref> and had [[dyslexia]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Miner |first1=Marylou |last2=Siegel |first2=Linda S. |title=APA PsycNet |url=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1992-35544-001 |journal=Journal of Learning Disabilities |volume=25 |issue=6 |pages=372–375 |date=June 1992 |access-date=27 March 2023 |pmid=1602232 |doi=10.1177/002221949202500605}}</ref>), he was fascinated by biology and zoology. In 1879 the family moved to [[Bedford Park, London|Bedford Park]] taking a two-year lease at 8 Woodstock Road.<ref name="chiswick">[http://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=info&page=conyeats.htm Yeats in Bedford Park] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630131250/http://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=info&page=conyeats.htm |date=30 June 2015}}, chiswickw4.com</ref> For financial reasons, the family returned to Dublin toward the end of 1880, living at first in the suburbs of [[Harold's Cross]]{{sfn|Jordan|2003|p=119}} and later in [[Howth]]. In October 1881, Yeats resumed his education at Dublin's [[The High School, Dublin|Erasmus Smith High School]].{{sfn|Hone|1943|p=33}} His father's studio was nearby and William spent a great deal of time there, where he met many of the city's artists and writers. During this period William began to write poetry, and in 1885 the ''Dublin University Review'' published his first poems as well as an essay titled "The Poetry of [[Samuel Ferguson|Sir Samuel Ferguson]]". Between 1884 and 1886, William attended the Metropolitan School of Art—now the [[National College of Art and Design]]—in [[Thomas Street, Dublin|Thomas Street]].<ref name="NYTObit" /> In March 1888 the family moved to 3 Blenheim Road in Bedford Park<ref>[https://www.wnblog.co.uk/2013/04/the-attraction-of-bedford-park/ "The attraction of Bedford Park"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181019001450/https://www.wnblog.co.uk/2013/04/the-attraction-of-bedford-park/ |date=19 October 2018}} by Amy Davies, 8 April 2013, [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]]</ref> where they would remain until 1902.<ref name=chiswick /> The rent on the house in 1888 was £50 a year.<ref name=chiswick />