June 13 will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of William Bulter Yeats.

“a tale that she
Told of a harsh reproof, or trivial event
That changed some childish day to tragedy”

The Irish Times has several articles and personal reflections to commemorate the day. They say he published with them, being “a prolific journalist, contributing to dozens of newspapers, magazines and periodicals on matters of both politics and poetry, although for the budding writer the two were indivisible. The young idealist may have had loftier aspirations than the industry he later decried as ‘jeering, tittering, emptiness,’ but it was a good and important beginning for him: a way to augment his meagre living and increase his profile for his poetry.”

“And thinking of that fit of grief or rage
I look upon one child or t’other there
And wonder if she stood so at that age—
For even daughters of the swan can share
Something of every paddler’s heritage—”