WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
I stumble as if drunk when I read Yeats. I become uncertain,
perhaps confused of my knowledge and beliefs. He buffets me as in a wind storm.
Unsteady, I must sit, re-gather my wits. Drink, not necessary, my mind already
addled as if I “had one too many”. I name him the great enchanter. His spirituality and imagination rooted in
the agricultural, idyllic, mythical past of Ireland are applicable to all
people of all countries.
all the conundrums of man’s condition. He says all with magnetic imagination and power and often song-like rhythms propelling the reader deeper and deeper into the confusion of life.
He pined for the heroic past age. Life never fulfills its
promises and dreams. He abhorred withering old age yet accepted mortality and always
insisted on the power of the word and the imagination. Although he often wrote
of erotic love and beauty, and his belief in mystical symbolism, he could be funny,
physical and anti clerical as in his “Crazy Jane” poems. He was touched by and
touches us all with “faerie” dust.
“Wine comes in at
the mouth
And love comes in
at the eye
That’s all we
shall know for truth
Before we grow
old and die”
-Elliot O. Lipchik
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