As the world prepares to celebrate Yeats Day on June 13th, Eileen Casey looks at the enduring legacy of our national poet, who continues to nurture the creative impulse not only in writers but in historians, artists and musicians.
ll over the world, the 150th anniversary of the birth of W.B. Yeats will be celebrated through the hosting of many historic and cultural events. 85,000 visitors are expected to come to Ireland purely because of our national poet.
June 13th (the actual birth date) is designated Yeats Day; bringing about a four day celebration at home and abroad. Among the events planned for the year is a daily lunchtime reading of the poet’s work in Sligo’s oldest pub, Hargadon’s. Yeats himself founded a poetry circle called The Rhymers Club in The Cheshire Cheese Pub in London.
Closer to home, The National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin, permanently houses The Yeats Collection, making it possible for the public to regularly engage with Yeats’ work.
A visit to NLI delivers a visual and audio feast in terms of sheer volume (2,000 items on 26 shelves). Included are; lecture notes, drafts of poems, plays, novels, letters, cards, telegrams, accounts, royalty statements, tax returns, school reports, news clippings, automatic writing and books. The poems have been recorded by a number of well known personalities and included in the archive is a reading of ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ by the poet himself.
The Yeats Collection was donated to the NLI by the Yeats family; manuscripts were given gradually over a period of years, between 1959 and 2002. Since the poet’s demise, the Yeats legacy continues to be an influential force for many artists and writers. Poets who have achieved significant international recognition can claim a direct inspirational link. The Nobel Laureate continues to nurture the creative impulse not only in writers but in historians, artists and musicians.