People say: “I would like to read Yeats, but he is so complicated.” But if you go into a poem line by line, the line often speaks directly to a human situation. I think Yeats was very good at distilling emotion or thinking that surrounds a moment. You have had that passion for Yeats poetry since you first visited Ireland in 1963. And, of course, now you have Joe Biden heading for the White House and ­peppering his speeches with poetry? He certainly knows his Yeats and he knows his Seamus Heaney.

Source: Irish Independent November 14, 2020 05:03 UTC