The Senate

Abstract

Yeats was appointed to the Irish Senate in December 1922 and served until July 1928. This period saw the culmination of his political work for Ireland, work which has been consistently underestimated, even by Yeats himself. He considered that he had failed in the Senate, and his advice to Pound, ‘Do not be elected to the Senate of your country’,¹ reflects his feeling of inadequacy. Yet his despondency was the product as much of events in Ireland as of any personal failure. His high hopes for the Free State were never fulfilled, and when he relinquished his Senate seat he foresaw only further bitterness for his country. In retrospect, therefore, he disparaged his own efforts to achieve a different and happier issue.