William Butler Yeats was born on the 13th of June 1865, and became the focus of the Irish Literary Renaissance during the early 20th century. His early poetry drew heavily from Irish legend and the occult, but as he matured he became increasingly engaged with his own time and Irish nationalism. The Yeats family moved to London in 1867, where his father gave up law in order to paint. Susan, William's mother, moves to Silgo in 1872 taking her children with her. Yeats was to form a profound attachment to this area. 2 years later the family were re-united in London where they stay until moving to Dublin in 1881. His first poems including The Island of Statues were published in 1885; during this year he also helped found the Dublin Hermetic Society. Back in London, 1889, at the age of 24 he meets the great unrequited love of his life, Maud Gonne. One year later, unknown to William, Maud gives birth to a son, George, (the child's father is Lucien Millevoye, the editor of a French newspaper) but the child dies before his first birthday. 1892 saw the first major publication of Yeats works, now know as The Rose, and he was also raising up the ranks in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In 1902 Yeats became president of the Irish National Theatre, his ambition was to raise national consciousness through the arts. After 13 years of marriage proposals from Yeats, in 1903, Maud Gonne plunged the poet into the depths of despair when she married Major John MacBride. Encouraged by his great friend, the poet, Erza Pound, Yeats begins to toughen his poetic style, this together with the inspiration from his wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees (whom he married in 1917) lead his to create The Tower collection of poems full of "power and self-possession", finally published in 1928. In 1922 Yeats becomes a senator in the Irish Free State, where he causes outrage with his demand that divorce should be made legal, he holds the position until 1928. The following year, at the age of 58 he is awarded the Nobel Prize. Despite failing health (high blood pressure, arthritis and serious lung congestion, Yeats kept up a busy schedule during the last 11 years of his life, with visits to Italy, France, Spain as well as undertaking reading tours in America. He continued to write too, releasing the much-acclaimed collection of poetry A Vision in 1938. He was also writing plays and radio productions for the BBC. He died at the age of 74 on the 28th of January 1939. In 1948 his remains were moved back to his beloved Silgo.