It was written between 1920 and 1922 for singer and an unusual accompanying group of flute, cor anglais and string quartet (two violins, viola and cello).
There is a lengthy instrumental introduction to the first song, in which the cry of the curlew is represented by the cor anglais and the peewit by the flute.
Four of the songs later to be incorporated into the cycle were performed by Gerald Cooper on 6 October 1920 at the Mortimer Hall in London.
Warlock wrote to his mentor Colin Taylor: "for the first time in my life I really feel pleased with something I have written.
In making the award the trustees wrote: 'A most imaginative setting of Mr Yeats's poems, of which, indeed, it may be regarded as the musical counterpart.