Ancestral Houses and Ancient Buildings

In the 1889, Yeats walked out from the meeting of the Socialist Circle and never returned. He attended these gatherings for two years and himself in various ideas of the famous English taxtile designer and social activist, William Morris. Some of his notions werw repeatedly trampled upon so he decided to leave the literary cradle for men of art. When years later, he held a Senate seat (1922-1928) within the newly formed Irish Free State, several of William Morris's ideas would reapper and would be reiterated in his speeches. The most notable ones are Yeats's action and reactions in connection with the motifs of homes, houses, buildings, ancient monuments, as well as notions of agriculture. The paper starts with Morris as he stood for the centre os a literary and thinking hub; then highlights the main differences between the thought of the two men. Having these as foundations, the third part will elaborate on recurrent motifs, notions and values in the Senate speeches, underpinning an often forgotten element of Yeats criticism that William Morris had always remained, as the poert put it, his "chief of men".