My father's favorite Irish poet is W.B. Yeats. I have not read much of him, but after going to the Yeats exhibit my interest in Yeats has been peaked. I am so excited to start reading and discussing him in class.

His interest in the folklore of ireland and the good folk, his study of the occult, and his desire to experience something of a world beyond his own I feel mimics my fathers.

Yeats seems to me to be a true romantic, as I have been told. You can see in his poetry, and is so clear through his pursuit of Maude Gonne and his persistence to win her. I admire his persistence although perhaps not his taste in women.

I can see parts of my father and myself in Yeats. The desire for some sort of spiritual breakthrough, and never really obtaining it. Yeats was surrounded by interesting people, revolutionaries and rebels, spiritualists and mediums, addicts and train-wrecks. Yet from all I have seen about him, he seemed relatively normal, except that he was drawn to the strange company he kept.

To be honest I haven't read enough of him to make judgments but I am excited to do some exploring. I have the feeling that learning more about Yeats will give me more insight into my father's character and my own. This weekend I head off to Brussels and after I return on the 10 of November there is a talk on Maude Gonne that I am going to. If anyone is in Dublin while the Yeats exhibit is going on at the National Library I would highly recommend going to the exhibit. It is free.