In 1913 William Butler Yeats studied poetry with Ezra Pound, and from this date all his verse was based on real life. He was made a Senator in the new Irish Free State in 1922 and received a Nobel Prize for poetry in 1923 - so what caused his sudden depression and despair in 1925? His poetry from just after his marriage to George reveals his secret affair with a young Catholic girl from 1918 and the birth of their illegitimate son in 1920. But his jealous wife had her murdered. Here you'll find his heartbreak and hopelessness at the loss of the two people he loved most, in some of the most moving love poetry in the English language.
