This educational resource pack, developed by the National Library of Ireland, introduces secondary school students to the rich relationship between W.B. Yeats (1865-1939)—one of Ireland's most significant literary figures—and the traditional folklore that profoundly influenced his poetic imagination. Drawing on the Library's extensive Yeats collection, it provides students with a structured approach to exploring how mythological narratives shaped literary expression in the Irish Revival period.

The lesson materials guide pupils through an examination of primary and secondary sources from the National Library's holdings, encouraging critical engagement with Yeats's creative process and his adaptation of folk motifs. By investigating how traditional fairytales and folklore informed Yeats's poetry, students gain insight into the dynamic relationship between oral tradition and literary innovation during a formative period in Ireland's cultural development.

W.B. Yeats's engagement with Irish folklore was not merely aesthetic but deeply political, emerging during a period of cultural nationalism when the recovery and celebration of indigenous traditions became integral to the assertion of Irish identity. Alongside figures like Lady Gregory and Douglas Hyde, Yeats participated in collecting and reinterpreting folk narratives, believing they contained spiritual and psychological truths essential to understanding the Irish character.

The featured illustration by Victor Brown, depicting an extract from Yeats's "The Song of Wandering Aengus," visually represents this synthesis of literary craft and mythological source material. This poem, with its references to the supernatural and its evocation of Ireland's mystical landscape, exemplifies how Yeats transformed traditional motifs into modern literary expression.

This educational resource demonstrates the continuing significance of examining how cultural memory is preserved, transmitted, and transformed through artistic expression, encouraging students to consider how traditional narratives maintain relevance through creative reinterpretation.