W. B. Yeats, Ernest Rhys and T. W. Rolleston founded the Rhymers’ Club in 1890 in London as an informal club for young poets and writers. The club met in an upper room at the Chesire Cheese on Fleet Street until 1894. Yeats wrote, “We read our poems to one another and talked criticism and drank a little wine.”

The membership of the club shifted over the years, but included John Davidson, Ernest Dowson, Edwin Ellis, George Arthur Greene, Arthur Cecil Hillier, Herbert Horne, Lionel Johnson, Richard Le Gallienne, Victor Plarr, Ernest Radford, Ernest Rhys, T. W. Rolleston, Arthur Symons, John Todhunter, Oscar Wilde, and W. B. Yeats. Yeats later referred to many of these poets as “The Tragic Generation.”

The Book of the Rhymers’ Club
London: Elkin Mathews, 1892;
reprint, New York: Garland, 1977.
Golda Meir Library
PR 1223 .R52 1977

The Second Book of the Rhymers’ Club
London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1894;
reprint, New York: Garland, 1977.
Golda Meir Library
PR 1223 .R52 1977

Two collections of poems by members of the Rhymers’ Club were published, one (450 copies) in 1892 and the other (650 copies) in 1894. Both were reprinted in 1977.

The poets represented in these volumes were, according to Yeats, “the poets with whom I learned my trade.”

Ernest Rhys, 1859 -1946.
Readings in Welsh History
London: Longman’s, Green and Co., 1901.
Special Collections, Golda Meir Library
(SPL) DA 715 .R48x

Originally a Welsh mining engineer, Rhys left that life in 1886 and moved to London where he became a literary editor, first for Walter Scott (the Camelot Classics) and later for J.M. Dent where in 1906, he became the editor of the Everyman Library. Rhys met Yeats through their mutual friend William Morris, and with Yeats and T.W. Rolleston founded the Rhymers’ Club in 1890.

Rhys also wrote verse. Richard Le Gallienne was the driving force behind Rhys’s first volume of poetry, A London Rose, published at the Bodley Head in 1894. Rhys never forgot his Welsh upbringing, and his knowledge of Welsh history and mythology figure prominently in much of his writing.

Johnson became a member along with Yeats, of the Rhymers’ Club in the early 1890s. Several of its members had Irish roots and their influence helped strengthen Yeats’s devotion to the rich past of his country. Though born and raised in England, Johnson proudly proclaimed his Celtic ancestry throughout his adult life, devoting much of his writing to Irish themes. Most notable are two volumes entitled, Ireland with Other Poems (1897) and Poetry and Ireland (shown here).

Yeats especially admired Johnson’s early work, including his first book of poetry, Poems (shown here), which many critics agree includes his finest work. The close friendship between Yeats and Johnson came to a tragic end in 1902 when Johnson, a heavy drinker, fell and fractured his skull.