W. B. Yeats

1 6.3

An Irish poet and writer of plays who helped revive Irish literature in the early 1900s

proper noun

Literature

: W. B. Yeats

Many of W. B. Yeats's poems explore Irish mythology and mysticism.

Examples

W. B. Yeats won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.
The works of W. B. Yeats are studied in many literature classes.
The plays of W. B. Yeats are still performed in theaters today.
Did you read any poems by W. B. Yeats?
In 1923, W. B. Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his contributions to poetry.
Many readers appreciate how W. B. Yeats weaves elements of Irish mythology into his work.
Students often analyze the themes present in W. B. Yeats's poems during their English classes.

Synonyms

Yeats

vsW. B. Yeats

Literature

10 6.2

An Irish poet and playwright who helped shape modern English poetry

is more detailed and adds the founder role in the literary revival

William Butler Yeats

vsW. B. Yeats

1 5.8

An Irish poet and playwright who wrote famous poems and plays and helped start the modern literary movement

is the abbreviated initial form of that same name

Surface Forms

W. B. Yeats main

Morphology

W. + B. + Yeats

This is a referential proper name composed of initials plus the surname Yeats; there is no idiomatic or metaphorical meaning to derive. A B1 learner who recognizes the surname (or understands that initialed forms denote a person's name) will directly identify it as the Irish poet, so the meaning is transparent from the constituents.

Etymology

W. B. Yeats is the short form of William Butler Yeats. He used old Irish stories and a sense of magic in his poems and plays, so his name now means 'an Irish poet and dramatist' known for those themes.