The Celtic Twilight

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his inspired poetry, which “gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.” This formula is also valid for his prose, and it is no coincidence that on the eve of Ireland’s independence, the title of his collection of essays The Celtic Twilight became a figurative definition of the entire national literary renaissance, of which the writer was a prominent representative. “A handful of dreams,” according to his humble definition, The Celtic Twilight is an excursion to the land of the faeries, the creatures, who are descended from the ancient gods and belong neither to the forces of light nor to the forces of darkness, to the land of spirits and ghosts, and therefore — to the very heart of Ireland, where folk beliefs date back to distant antiquity, where the gift of visionaryism is still preserved and where it is customary not to be at enmity with the other world, but to “exchange civilities” with it. The notes of the folklorist, who carefully and enthusiastically recorded the stories of the peasants, are interspersed here with insightful comments of the writer, who himself had a visionary experience.