If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.
William Butler YeatsRead
I have known more men destroyed by the desire to have wife and child and to keep them in comfort than I have seen destroyed by drink and harlots.
Interpretation
Desire for family stability can have destructive consequences, sometimes worse than vices like alcohol or infidelity.
In this quote, William Butler Yeats expresses the idea that the intense desire to create and maintain a family life—centered around a wife and children—can lead individuals to experience destruction and despair. He suggests that the pressures and expectations associated with familial responsibilities can be more harmful than traditional vices, indicating a critique of societal norms around family and commitment.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a discussion about the pressures of family life.
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.
How do you live with one person for 13 years and another for eight and find both as alien as strangers?
I wish I’d a knowed more people. I would of loved ‘em all. If I’d a knowed more, I would a loved more
What is faithfulness, anyway? Can you be unfaithful to your own feelings and faithful to someone else? Is it faithful to lie in bed night after night with someone you love but no longer desire while ardently dreaming of someone else?
It seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important.
Let's go hand in hand, not one before another.
I was one of I think three white girls in my school. So, I was very much an outsider. And plus I was Jewish and all of my friends were black and Baptist because they listen to the coolest music. We were all listening to Ray Charles and what was then called race music.
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