If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.
William Butler YeatsRead
This melancholy London - I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a deep sense of loss and the haunting presence of souls in the city of London.
William Butler Yeats reflects on the profound melancholia of London, suggesting that the spirits of lost souls roam its streets eternally. This evokes a poignant image of their lingering presence, highlighting themes of loss and the unseen connection between the living and the dead, creating a vivid atmosphere of sorrow intertwined with urban life.
In practice
In a speech about the history of London, one might use this quote to express the city's profound sense of history and memory.
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.
How far away the stars seem, and how far is our first kiss, and ah, how old my heart.
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.
There is a common tendency to ignore the poor or to develop some rationalisation for the good fortune of the fortunate.
Our misery comes, not from work, but by our getting attached to something. Take for instance, money: money is a great thing to have, earn it, says Krishna; struggle hard to get money, but don't get attached to it. So with children, with wife, husband, relatives, fame, everything; you have no need to shun them, only don't get attached. There is only one attachment and that belongs to the Lord, and to none other.
The law of Karma is the law of causation.
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose are to provide for defense by all those means to which our resources are competent.
A hostility to modernity is shared by ideologies that have nothing else in common - a nostalgia for moral clarity, small-town intimacy, family values, primitive communism, ecological sustainability, communitarian solidarity, or harmonies with the rhythms of nature.
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