“Why should the imagination of a man
Long past his prime remember things that are
Emblematical of love and war?”

— W.B. Yeats , book The Winding Stair and Other Poems

I, st. 3
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), A Dialogue of Self and Soul http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1397/
Context: My Soul. Why should the imagination of a man
Long past his prime remember things that are
Emblematical of love and war?
Think of ancestral night that can,
If but imagination scorn the earth
And intellect is wandering
To this and that and t'other thing,
Deliver from the crime of death and birth.

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W.B. Yeats 255

Irish poet and playwright 1865–1939

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“Why should the imagination of a manLong past his prime remember things that areEmblematical of love and war?”

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W.B. Yeats 255

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“Why should the imagination of a man
Long past his prime remember things that are
Emblematical of love and war?”