When I was 16 I was set the task of preparing a classroom presentation on his poem "The Man Who Dreamed of Faerieland". This was without an introduction to Yeats' work, which they decided would happen in "week 2" after my presentation.

Well, I set to it and although I almost went barmy in the process it began a lifelong appreciation for his work.

There are some recurring obsessions in his poems which might give you a way in.

His early poems are mainly Irish folkloric. He also wrote political poems and poems based on his own weird mix of theosophical values and crazy visions.

His book 'A Vision' explores some of the crazy visions, and certainly helped me get my head around the more obscure poems.

The poems are also full of classical mythology, superimposed with his own world. Helen of troy is both Helen and Maud Gonne (see above).

In 1993 I was determined to go to ireland and visit some of the Yeats 'landmarks', and thus visited Coole Park, Ben Bulben, Lissadell and lots more places. It was like a pilgrimage!

Enjoy the poems Callie