William Butler Yeats (; 13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of
20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish
Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving force behind the
Irish Literary Revival and, along with
Lady Gregory,
Edward Martyn, and others, founded the
Abbey Theatre, where he served as its chief during its early years. In 1923, he was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Irishman so honoured for what the
Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include
The Tower (1928) and
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929).