"Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen" is a poem by

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

. It was included in his collection '' The Tower'' in 1928. The poem was likely influenced by Yeats’s knowledge of the 1920

killing of Eileen Quinn Eileen Quinn (Birth name#Maiden and married names, née Gilligan; 1895 or 1896 – 1 November 1920) was a young mother from County Galway. On All Saints' Day 1920, she was shot dead outside her home by the Black and Tans of the Royal Irish Cons ...

. In the ''Critical Companion to William Butler Yeats'', the poem was described as "the very definition of a major poem and a reasonable nominee as Yeats's

magnum opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

References

External links

* *Complete text of
Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen
at HathiTrust Digital Library 1928 poems Poetry by W. B. Yeats {{1920s-poem-stub