Tag Archives: W.B. Yeats

The Books: The Gonne-Yeats Letters 1893-1938

Posted on July 27, 2011 by sheila

Daily Book Excerpt: Memoirs: Next book on the Memoir/Letters/Journals shelf is The Gonne-Yeats Letters 1893-1938. I’ve written much about these two, two of the leading lights of the Irish Renaissance of the early 20th century, although they had different concerns … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday, William Butler Yeats

Posted on June 13, 2011 by sheila

William Butler Yeats was born today in 1865. Yeats is a great poet and all that, but I grew up pretty much “over” him because he was omnipresent in our household. We were made to memorize his epitaph in order … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Magical Thinking

Posted on May 27, 2011 by sheila

I love this Smart Set column by Jessa Crispin on magical thinking. Ostensibly two book reviews, the piece starts and ends with a discussion of the “mystical marriage” of W.B. Yeats and Maud Gonne (“It is to be a bond … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday, Maud Gonne: “It Is To Be A Bond Of The Spirit Only.”

Posted on December 20, 2010 by sheila

Maud Gonne, Irish revolutionary, feminist, radical, and lifelong poetic muse of William Butler Yeats, was born on this day in history in 1865. She married John MacBride (after a couple of notorious affairs and illegitimate children). John MacBride was an … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Interview with Rebecca West

Posted on March 27, 2010 by sheila

In 1981, Rebecca West was interviewed by The Paris Review, and it’s included in the first volume of the Paris Review interviews. She was an old woman by that point, 90 years old, living in London. Cataracts had ruined her … Continue reading →

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“I think putting Yeats to rock’n’roll and doing it for 20 songs is radical.”

Posted on March 12, 2010 by sheila

Wonderful piece about setting poems from famous poets to music, in particular Yeats. The focus of the piece is on The Waterboys (especially Mike Scott) who has been determined to put Yeats’s stuff to music, and has been doing so … Continue reading →

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Maud Gonne: “Strike Me If I Shriek.”

Posted on January 13, 2010 by sheila

A letter from Maud Gonne to WB Yeats, in December 1908. Yeats had come to visit Gonne where she was living in Paris. After years and years of friendship (not to mention what they called their “spiritual marriage”), it is … Continue reading →

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Entire Worlds In a Footnote

Posted on January 9, 2010 by sheila

I love books where entire worlds open up in the footnotes. I have often followed the trail of footnotes and found books that have become ultimate favorites of all time, because of the mention in a footnote. The footnotes to … Continue reading →

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Gonne and Yeats: a fragment

Posted on January 7, 2010 by sheila

Ella Young wrote in her autobiography Flowering Dusk of her glimpses of Maud Gonne and WB Yeats: I see her standing with WB Yeats, the poet, in front of Whistler’s Miss Alexander in the Dublin gallery where some pictures by … Continue reading →

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On the island

Posted on January 7, 2010 by sheila

— There is only one four-way intersection on the island. No stoplights. The intersection is referred to one and all as “The Four Corners.” “Excuse me, can you tell me where the bank is?” “The Four Corners.” “Got it.” — … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments