ABSTRACT
Yeats is one of the founder-figures of modern poetry. He was both a Romantic and a modern poet. He was an Irishman with a lasting love for his country, and his early work was full of melody and decoration, luscious poetry in the Romantic and late-Romantic style. His style then began to change to something leaner, more refined and more austere. His third and final period culminated in the poem ‘Under Ben Bulben’, which is an epitaph for the poet written by himself, and which firmly proclaims his Irishness as a man and a poet. Yeats was also a vastly influential figure in Irish drama, although his work as a dramatist is rarely set for examination purposes.
