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I kiss you and kiss you, With arms around my own, Ah, how shall I miss you, When, dear, you have grown.
William Butler Yeats
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote expresses a deep affection and longing for a loved one who is growing and changing.

In this quote, William Butler Yeats reflects on the emotional intensity of love and the bittersweet nature of growth and change. As the speaker kisses their beloved, they are filled with both joy and sorrow, contemplating how their connection will evolve as the beloved matures and possibly moves away from their current state. It encapsulates the idea that love is powerful and filled with both moments of closeness and the inevitable distance that comes with time.

Themes

LoveLongingChangeGrowthAffection

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used during a wedding toast to highlight the journey of love.

More from William Butler Yeats

If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.
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It was my first meeting with a philosophy that confirmed my vague speculations and seemed at once logical and boundless.
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But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
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How far away the stars seem, and how far is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart.
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For he would be thinking of love Till the stars had run away And the shadows eaten the moon.
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Love is created and preserved by intellectual analysis, for we love only that which is unique, and it belongs to contemplation, not to action, for we would not change that which we love.
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