William Butler Yeats can be described as one of the last romantics, despite broadening his style later in life to include some of the new modernist techniques and ideas. A man of deep respect for ceremony, Yeats maintained his passion for rhyme and meter throughout his life, and this appreciation of form kept him from jumping headlong into the realm of modernism. His poetry begins as highly romantic, fearful and introverted, but as Yeats matures, …showed first 75 words of 2617 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2617 total…period is still evident, and while his style is clear and unadorned as in this period, he has also added the detachment and contemplative and occult qualities of his third period. While he spent much of this last period lamenting his loss of creativity, it is surely his most developed period, as he has spent much time studying his work--stripping it down in the same way he saw his body being stripped down by age.