If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.
William Butler YeatsRead
How far away the stars seem, and how far is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the feelings of nostalgia and the deep emotional impact of love.
In this quote, William Butler Yeats evokes a sense of longing and introspection. He compares the distant stars to the remoteness of a cherished first kiss, emphasizing the passage of time and the memories associated with love. His longing suggests that while experiences may seem far away, their emotional weight remains present in the heart, illustrating the enduring nature of romantic feelings and the complexity of love as one ages.
In practice
In a wedding speech reflecting on how love grows over time.
If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.
It was my first meeting with a philosophy that confirmed my vague speculations and seemed at once logical and boundless.
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
For he would be thinking of love Till the stars had run away And the shadows eaten the moon.
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.
I believe when I am in the mood that all nature is full of people whom we cannot see, and that some of these are ugly or grotesque, and some wicked or foolish, but very many beautiful beyond any one we have ever seen, and that these are not far away... and the simple of all times and the wise men of ancient times have seen them and even spoken to them.
How many gifts and graces You have given me! How many favors You have fed me from your hand! I look for your love in all directions, then suddenly its blessing burns in me.
No man knows till he experiences it, what it is like to feel his own life-blood drawn away into the woman he loves.
You carry away with you a reflection of me, a part of me. I dreamed you; I wished for your existence. You will always be a part of my life. If I love you, it must be because we shared, at some moment, the same imaginings, the same madness, the same stage.
I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live. He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love.
My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke that caused me to laugh bitterly through the ten thousand nights I spent alone.
Whoever loves above all the approach of love will never know the joy of attaining it.
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