If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.
William Butler YeatsRead
The unpurged images of day recede; The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed; Night resonance recedes, night-walkers' song After great cathedral gong.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the transition from day to night and the fading of vivid memories into silence.
In this excerpt from his poem, Yeats captures the end of the day as life’s chaos gives way to night’s calm. The imagery of unpurged images fading into darkness symbolizes how intense experiences can become distant and muted, and the reference to the Emperor's soldiers suggests a connection to both the beauty and turmoil of life, culminating in the stillness that comes with night. It evokes a sense of reflection and the passage of time, where memories wane and tranquility takes over.
In practice
This quote can be used during a poetry reading to illustrate the beauty of night.
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.
With a changing key, you unlock the house where the snow of what’s silenced drifts. Just like the blood that bursts from Your eye or mouth or ear, so your key changes. Changing your key changes the word That may drift with flakes. Just like the wind that rebuffs you, Clenched round your word is the snow.
I sometimes hold it half a sin To put in words the grief I feel For words, like nature, half reveal And half conceal the soul within. But, for the unquiet heart and brain A use measured language lie's The sad mechanic exercise Like dull narcotic's, numbing pain In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er Like coarsest clothes against the cold But large grief which these enfold Is given in outline and no more.
In this particular tub, two knees jut up like icebergs, while minute brown hairs rise on arms and legs in a fringe of kelp; green soap navigates the tidal slosh of seas breaking on legendary beaches; in faith we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail among sacred islands of the mad till death shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.
Under your skin the moon is alive.
When I breathe,_x000D_ This sound in my chest_x000D_ Lonelier than the winter wind
one pierced moment whiter than the rest -turning from the tremendous lie of sleep i watch the roses of the day grow deep.
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