W.B. Yeats – Leaving Cert Poetry Notes and Analyses

Explore W.B. Yeats on the Leaving Certificate poetry course. Use the boxes below for direct links to full poem analyses. Then scroll for context, themes, and exam guidance.

About W.B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is the most important poet in the Irish literary tradition and one of the most frequently examined on the Leaving Cert. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. His career spans over fifty years, and the prescribed poems cover that full range, from the dreamy early lyrics to the fierce, stripped-back late work. That range is one of the most useful things about studying Yeats. Whatever question appears on the paper, you will have material to work with.

Yeats grew up between Dublin and Sligo, and both places shaped his writing. Sligo gave him the landscapes and mythology that fill the early poems. Dublin gave him the political intensity that drives the middle and late work. He was deeply involved in the Irish literary revival, co-founded the Abbey Theatre, and served as a senator of the Irish Free State. His poetry is inseparable from the history of modern Ireland.

The early Yeats is musical, romantic, and steeped in Celtic mythology. The Lake Isle of Innisfree is the clearest example: a poem about escaping modern life for a place of peace and natural beauty. It is also the poem most students encounter first, and it can feel deceptively simple. The exam rewards students who can explain how Yeats uses sound and rhythm to create that sense of longing, not just what the poem is about.

The middle period is dominated by Irish politics. September 1913 is a bitter attack on the Dublin middle class for caring more about money than the ideals of the nationalist movement. Easter 1916 is one of the most important poems in the English language about political violence: Yeats is torn between admiration for the rebels and horror at what fanaticism does to people. The repeated line “a terrible beauty is born” captures that ambivalence perfectly. If you are writing about conflict, complexity, or the cost of political commitment, this is your strongest poem.

The late Yeats is stark, angry, and obsessed with ageing, death, and the power of the mind. Sailing to Byzantium is the key poem here: an old man rejects the physical world and seeks immortality through art. An Acre of Grass returns to the same theme but with more desperation. Under Ben Bulben is his final statement, part manifesto, part epitaph. These late poems are essential for questions about how a poet’s voice changes over time.

How Yeats Appears on the Leaving Cert

Poetry is worth 50 marks on Paper 2. You will be given a prompt and asked to respond with close reference to the poems you have studied. You do not get to choose the prompt, so you need to know Yeats well enough to adapt. Focus on at least six poems, but aim for eight or nine. The more poems you can draw on, the more flexible your answer will be.

Yeats is a strong choice for almost any question type. If the prompt asks about imagery, you have The Wild Swans at Coole and Sailing to Byzantium. If it asks about a poet who engages with the world around them, you have Easter 1916 and September 1913. If it asks about how a poet changes over time, compare any early poem with any late one and the contrast is obvious. Yeats gives you options. That is why examiners keep coming back to him.

The most common mistake with Yeats is treating each poem as a separate unit. The strongest answers link poems together. If you are writing about ageing, connect The Wild Swans at Coole to Sailing to Byzantium to An Acre of Grass. If you are writing about Ireland, connect September 1913 to Easter 1916 to The Stare’s Nest by My Window. Examiners notice when a student can move between poems with confidence.

Key Themes and Style

Ireland, politics, and national identity: from romantic nationalism to bitter disillusionment to complex engagement. Yeats never stops writing about Ireland, but his relationship with the country changes profoundly across his career.

Ageing, mortality, and the body: the tension between physical decline and the restless energy of the mind. This runs from The Wild Swans at Coole right through to Under Ben Bulben.

Art and immortality: the belief that art can outlast the body. Sailing to Byzantium is the central poem, but the idea appears throughout the later work.

Transformation and change: people, places, and ideas are constantly being transformed in Yeats. The rebels in Easter 1916 are “changed, changed utterly.” The swans at Coole are unchanged while Yeats has aged. Transformation is everywhere.

Style: Yeats moves from lush, musical early verse to a harder, more direct late style. His use of symbols (the tower, the gyre, the swan, Byzantium) gives his work unity across decades. His best lines have the force of proverbs. Notice how he uses rhetorical questions, repeated phrases, and direct address to create urgency.

Related Poets

Patrick Kavanagh | Derek Mahon | Emily Dickinson

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