ABSTRACT
W. B. Yeats’s art and life were marked by the polarizing influences of Irish politics. In addition to writing poems and plays and establishing an Irish national theater, Yeats published a great many letters to the editors of various Irish newspapers, letters on a variety of topics ranging from the Abbey theater, literature, and the language debate to the right of transportation workers to unionize. There is a tendency to separate Yeats’s writing and his politics, and a growing body of criticism has challenged it. Conor O’Brien’s 1972 essay “Passion and Cunning: the Politics of Yeats” debunked the myth that Yeats was apolitical; O’Brien insisted that “Yeats was a public figure for more than forty years; deeply immersed in political interests, politically active whenever opportunity presented itself”. Early in Yeats’s career, John Eglinton criticized Yeats for embracing mythological and legendary topics rather than realistic ones.
