Born in Dublin， in 1865， the firstborn of John Butler Yeats and Susan Mary Yeats. In 1877， W.B. entered Godolphin school， which he attended for four years， after which he continued his education at Erasmus Smith High School， in Dublin. For a time （from 1884 - 1886）， he attended the Metropolitan School of Art.
In 1885， Yeats' first poems were published in the Dublin University Review.
In 1889， Yeats met Maud Gonne， a young heiress who was beginning to devote herself to the Irish nationalist movement. Gonne admired Yeats' early poem The Isle of Statues and sought out his acquaintance. Yeats developed an obsessive infatuation with Gonne， and she was to have a significant effect on his poetry and his life ever after. In 1896， he was introduced to Lady Gregory by their mutual friend Edward Martyn. Lady Gregory encouraged Yeats' nationalism and convinced him to continue focusing on writing drama. With Lady Gregory and others， he founded the Irish Literary Theatre， from which developed the Abbey Theatre， Dublin， in 1896.
He was highly interested in mysticism and spiritualism， and attended his first séance in 1886. Later， Yeats became heavily involved with hermeticist and theosophical beliefs， and in 1900 he became head of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn， which he had joined in 1890. That same year， maintaining his interest in the literary arts， Yeats confounded the Rhymer's Club with John Rhys.
All his life， Yeats maintained friendships with a number of poets and literary figures； for a time in 1913， Ezra Pound served as Yeats' secretary. Yeats was also known and respected by Oscar Wilde， John Millington Synge， T.S. Eliot， and Virginia Woolf， among others.
Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923.
Yeats， after suffering from a variety of illnesses for a number of years， died in France in January 1939， eight months before the German invasion of Poland. Yeats was first buried at Roquebrune， until his body was moved to Drumecliff， Sligo in September 1948. His grave is a famous attraction in Sligo. Of this location， Yeats said， "The place that has really influenced my life most is Sligo." The stone reads a line from one of his poems （Under Ben Bulben）
Cast a cold eye
On life，
On death， horsemen
pass by！
