W.B.Yeats Reading His Own Verse

Yeats made these recordings for the wireless in 1932, 1934 and the last on 28 October 1937 when he was 72. He died on January 28 1939. The photograph shows him sitting before the microphone in 1937.

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[bassimammar ammara]

I'm Iraqi , I still dream visiting Great Ireland and going where Yeats went and sing .

[vickiehill1]

After Keats...Yeats is my all-time favorite poet. How wonderful to be able to hear his voice reciting his own poetry. This is absolutely priceless!!

[Wyldephang]

That's possible, but either way, Yeats identified most with his Anglo-Irish ancestry. Recall his fiery words on the floor of the Irish Senate in 1925: "We [the Anglo-Irish] are one of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people of Burke; we are the people of Grattan; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. We have created the most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence."

[nemohove]

My dad used to tell me about this recording, and what Yeats said. Lovely to find it...

[Nova314159]

Thank you for this excellent answer.

[Nova314159]

His ACCent!

[Salineddi]

I hope you get to go there some day!

[draoi99]

How nice. I hope you can come and see Ben Bulben some day!

[draoi99]

That's right. Hwoever, an earlier generation of English (Normans) arrived in the 12rh century. They frequently intermarried with the Gaelic Irish. Among that group were the Butlers of Ormonde and Yeats tried unsuccessfully for a long time to find an ancestral connection to them. There's no immediate evidence he has Gaelic ancestry but it's likely, farther back in the past. Even Queen Elizabeth II has got Brian Boroimhe in her family tree.

[karezza777]

Did he have any Irish ancestry?

[sdmke7]

Yeats was Anglo-Irish. That means he was descended from English colonists. I don't know how long his family was in Ireland, probably from the 17th century on. "Irishness," like any ethnic identity, was and is a cultural construct and is constantly in flux. He was certainly Irish, but his family was not of Gaelic origins.