I came across a fabulous piece of literature written by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola in 1486 (at the age of 23), just six years before Columbus sailed to the Americas. Pico della Mirandola had a wonderful capacity for syncretism, a double-edged sword that likely lead to his eventual poisoning for challenging the status quo. The …
Tag: william butler yeats
Call Down the Hawk
The Hawk by William Butler Yeats 'Call down the hawk from the air; Let him be hooded or caged Till the yellow eye has grown mild, For larder and spit are bare, The old cook enraged, The scullion gone wild.' 'I will not be clapped in a hood, Nor a cage, nor alight upon wrist, …
Moral Energy
"Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before."- William Butler Yeats Life, in a nutshell, is the passage from innocence through temptation to either virtue or vice. What will you make of your life …
Honor Bred
To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing by William Butler Yeats Now all the truth is out, Be secret and take defeat From any brazen throat, For how can you compete, Being honor bred, with one Who were it proved he lies Were neither shamed in his own Nor in his neighbors' eyes; …
The Bitter Glass
The Two Trees by William Butler Yeats Beloved, gaze in thine own heart, The holy tree is growing there; From joy the holy branches start And all the trembling flowers they bear. The changing colours of its fruit Have dowered the stars with merry light; The surety of its hidden root Has planted quiet in …
Remorse and Forgiveness
When such as I cast out remorse So great a sweetness flows into the breast We must laugh and we must sing, We are blest by everything, Everything we look upon is blessed. ~ William Butler Yeats Vain regrets about the past are meaningless. They shackle you to the past, deflect the currents of forgiveness …
Full Conviction
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. ~ William …
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
"He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I …
Gregory Hake 