Yeats-O-Mania NPR's Melissa Block takes note of a trend among politicians to quote the words of William Butler Yeats. Irish-American politicians tend to quote him most frequently. There are complaints that taking Yeats' lines out of context distorts their meaning and that over-using Yeats can devalue the poet's work, reducing his lines to political cliches.

Yeats-O-Mania Yeats-O-Mania Yeats-O-Mania Audio will be available later today. NPR's Melissa Block takes note of a trend among politicians to quote the words of William Butler Yeats. Irish-American politicians tend to quote him most frequently. There are complaints that taking Yeats' lines out of context distorts their meaning and that over-using Yeats can devalue the poet's work, reducing his lines to political cliches. NPR thanks our sponsors Become an NPR sponsor