Great thread, thanks. Yes, through the years Yeats' lens on life changed dramatically. His long love for Maud Gonne I believe tempered his poetry. I was sent this excerpt from the poem, "Vacillation" for my fiftieth birthday and (as another poet said) “it has made all the difference”:
(from Vacillation)
Verse IV
My fiftieth year had come and gone,
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book and empty cup
On the marble table-top.
While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless.
Last edited by Jim Moonan; 01-09-2017 at 06:34 PM.
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