William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and initiate, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, and later served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State.
Considered one of the key English-language poets, Yates was a Symbolist, using allusive imagery and symbolic structures throughout his career. He chose words and assembled them so that, in addition to a particular meaning, they suggest abstract thoughts that may seem more significant and resonant. His use of symbols is usually something physical that is both itself and a suggestion of other, perhaps immaterial, timeless qualities.
The Yeats' story The Curse of the Fires and of the Shadows, which today we propose to our readers, was written in 1893. It is based on Sir Frederick Hamilton's burning of Sligo Abbey in 1642 during the Irish Confederate Wars. In Yeats's story, five soldiers who shoot the monks are cursed by the abbot and, when ordered by Hamilton to intercept two messengers sent by the people of Sligo to call for help, they lose their way in the forest and are then led over a cliff by a vengeful sidhe.