orig. George William Russell
born April 10, 1867, Lurgan, County Armagh, Ire.
died July 17, 1935, Bournemouth, Hampshire, Eng.
Irish poet and mystic.
A leading figure in the Irish Literary Renaissance , he published many books of verse, including Homeward (1894). Though initially considered by many to be the equal of William Butler Yeats , he did not develop as a poet, and many critics found him facile, vague, and monotonous. His pseudonym arose from a proofreader's query about an earlier pseudonym, on.