One of the most important literary exhibitions yet staged internationally opened in Dublin yesterday. The exhibition, Yeats - the Life and Work of William Butler Yeats, will run for three years in the National Library of Ireland and is far more than a worthy celebration of the finest poet of the 20th century and one of world literature's enduring icons.
It offers for the first time anywhere, through the exhibition of valuable source material, memorabilia, anecdote, four documentary films and interactive digital touch screens, a near definitive exploration of the intellectual and imaginative urgency which inspired Yeats the poet.
Drawing on its extensive Yeats collection, the National Library has also been able to secure further material including the occult notebooks which were donated to the library by the Yeats family in 2000. This material includes documents related to the poet's involvement with The Order of the Golden Dawn which he had joined in 1890. There are also examples of the automatic writing executed by George Yeats shortly after her marriage to Yeats in 1917.
Also one display is one of the five Rapallo notebooks. It is the first time it has been displayed and is accessible through an interactive digital touch screen. There are also four films based on specific areas of the poet's interest. The exhibition is sophisticated, atmospheric and above all, accessible. It also reflects the poet's daunting range of interests.
Death and age were always central to his thoughts. It was James Joyce who on meeting Yeats in 1902 delivered the weighted barb. "I am 20. How old are you?" Yeats who was then 37 but later admitted, "I am afraid I said I was a year younger." Joyce was merciless. "I thought as much. I have met you too late. You are too old." Both men had poor eyesight, both men had genius, both had impoverished fathers and there are other similarities. But an essential difference remains: Joyce used many cultural references. Yeats lived them and this outstanding exhibition explains the inspiration, curiosity, passion and daring of a complete artist.
Opening the exhibition, Minister for the Arts John O'Donoghue said Yeats had played a crucial role in the revitalisation of a distinct Irish culture in the early years of the last century, through his writing and his role in the establishment of the Abbey Theatre.
The Minister reminded those at the opening that the library had the foremost Yeats literary collection in the world due to the generosity of the Yeats family.
