William Butler Yeats (1865-1929) is often considered the last of Romantics for continuing the Romantic tradition. Yeats began as one of the last Romantics and retained this title till the end, modifying and extending his native cultural and literary traditions. Alike other modernist writers, the poet did not draw his images from the industrial and urban life and did not elevate them to the height of poetic passion but used the current living language along the line of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth so as to enable the masses to understand and appreciate his contents and concerns.  Yeats received the Romantic tradition of love from the Romantic tradition of 19^th century and the Renaissance courtly culture. His early poetry is predominantly characterized by the Renaissance virtues of courtly culture such as courtesy, grace, proportion, decorum, decorated code of conduct. In the early poetry, Maud as a dream woman is imaged with motherland. In the poems about Ireland, Maud is placed on the high pedestal, highlighting her as a symbol and source of proud and timeless beauty.  In the Rose Poems, Maud is romanticized and immortalized as muse, goddess or a perfect being and beauty, visualizing her endowed with such attributes as dignity, liveliness and beauty essential for her to be qualified as his great love.

Keywords: Romantic Tradition, Renaissance, Courtly Tradition, Modernism, Pre-Raphaelite.

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