"When I think of all the books I have read, and of the wise words I have heard spoken, and of the anxiety I have given to parents and grandparents, and of the hopes that I have had, all life weighed in the scales of my own life seems to me preparation for something that never happens." - Autobiography, 1938
Nobel Prize-winning Anglo-Irish poet whose work interweaves mysticism, Irish history, love, and self-analysis. He also wrote essays and plays, was active in the Irish National Theatre and served as an Irish senator.