威廉·巴特勒·叶芝（William Butler Yeats, 1865—1939），于1865年6月13日出生在都柏林，童年大部分时间在爱尔兰西部的港口城镇斯莱戈度过，那里后来成为他许多诗歌的背景。1884年，叶芝进入都柏林的艺术学校学习，但两年之后便离开学校，专门从事诗歌创作。1889年，他出版了第一本诗集《乌辛的流浪》。
叶芝的诗歌创作可以分为三个主要阶段：第一阶段的诗歌通常取材于爱尔兰神话和民间传说，第二阶段的诗歌是对爱尔兰社会和历史的思索，第三阶段诗歌在创作风格上发生了比较激烈的变化，更加趋向现代主义。主要代表作品有《十字路口》(1889)、《玫瑰》(1893)、《苇间风》(1899)、《库尔的野天鹅》(1917)、《塔楼》(1928)、《旋梯及其他》(1933)、《最后的诗》(1936—1939)等。1923年，叶芝获得诺贝尔文学奖。

CROSSWAYS
The Indian to His Love
The Falling of the Leaves
Ephemera
Down by the Salley Gardens
The Stolen Child
To an Isle in the Water
THE ROSE
To the Rose upon the Rood of Time
The Rose of the World
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
A Cradle Song
The Pity of Love
The Sorrow of Love
The Two Trees
Thee Dedication to a Book of Stories Selected from the Irish Novelists
The White Birds
A Dream of Death
When You Are Old
THE WIND AMONG THE REEDS
The Moods
The Lover Tells of the Rose in His Heart
The Lover Mourns for the Loss of Love
Into the Twilight
The Song of Wandering Aengus
He Bids His Beloved Be at Peace
He Reproves the Curlew
He Remembers Forgotten Beauty
A Poet to His Beloved
He Gives His Beloved Certain Rhymes
To His Heart, Bidding it Have No Fear
The Lovers Asks Forgiveness Because of His Many Moods
He Tells of a Valley Full of Lovers
He Tells of the Perfect Beauty
He Hears the Cry of the Sedge
He Thinks of Those Who Have Spoken Evil of His Beloved
The Secret Rose
The Poet Pleads with the Elemental Powers
He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
He Thinks of His Past Greatness
When a Part of the Constellations of Heaven
IN THE SEVEN WOODS
The Arrow
The Folly of Being Comforted
Old Memory
Adam’s Curse
Never Give All the Heart
The Ragged Wood
O Do Not Love Too Long
THE GREEN HELMET
A Woman Homer Sung
Words
No Second Troy
Reconciliation
Peace
A Drinking Song
Against Unworthy Praise
The Coming of Wisdom with Time
The Mask
Brown Penny
RESPONSIBILITIES
To a Child Dancing in the Wind
Two Years Later
A Memory of Youth
Fallen Majesty
That the Night Come
Friends
A Coat
THE WILD SWANS AT COOLE
The Wild Swans at Coole
In Memory of Major Robert Gregory
Men Improve with the Years
Solomon to Sheba
The Living Beauty
A Song
The Dawn
To a Young Beauty
Broken Dreams
To a Young Girl
Memory
A Deep-Sworn Vow
Presences
Two Songs of a Fool
MICHAEL ROBARTES AND THE DANCER
Solomon and the Witch
Under Saturn
Easter, 1916
On a Political Prisoner
To Be Carved on a Stone at Thoor Ballylee
The Second Coming
A Prayer for My Daughter
THE TOWER
Leda and Swan
Among School Children
Owen Aherne and His Dancer
A Man Young and Old
THE WINDING STAIR
Death
Three Movements
Words for Music Perhaps
A Woman Young and Old
The Result of Thought
The Choice
LAST POEMS
Beautiful Lofty Things
Under Ben Bulben
A Crazed Girl
The Statues
The Apparitions
A Bronze Head
Those Images

威廉·巴特勒·叶芝著的《叶芝诗选(英文版)(精)》是叶芝各时期代表作品的精选集。精选了诸如《被盗的孩子》《当你老了》《柳园里》《致时间十字架上的玫瑰》《白鸟》《茵纳斯弗利岛》《进入曙光来》等脍炙人口的诗篇。叶芝是爱尔兰诗人、剧作家、散文家，1923年诺贝尔文学奖得主，“爱尔兰文艺复兴运动”的领袖者之一，曾被艾略特誉为“20世纪最伟大的英语诗人”。1923年诺贝尔文学评审委员会对他的评语是：“他那永远富有灵感的诗歌，以一种高度艺术的形式表现了一整个民族的精神。”