W. B. Yeats

All things can tempt me from this craft ofOne time it was a woman's face, or worse-The seeming needs of my fool-driven land;Now nothing but comes readier to the handThan this accustomed toil.-- From All Things Can Tempt MeNobel Prize winner W.B. Yeats laid the foundations for an Irish literary revival, drawing inspiration from his country's folklore, the occult, and Celtic philosophy. A writer of both poems and plays, he helped found Dublin's famed Abbey Theatre. The poems here provide an example of his life's work and artistry, beginning with verses such as "The Stolen Child" from his debut collection Crossways (written when he was 24) through "Why Should Not Old Men Be Mad?" from On the Boiler , published a year prior to his death.