William Butler Yeats. Comments

I have been reading Yeats for 51 years, I consider him my Master. I don't disagree with your poem about him, but it emphasizes the political Yeats. He was burned many times by politics and politicians, Enough said. His gifts to Ireland were the creation of a national literature, the Abbey Theater, the support of younger writers, cultural rather than political achievements. Personally, what Yeats has given me, for which I love and honor him, is a basis for belief in spiritual things after the collapse of my Roman Catholic Faith. Too many people who lose their childhood faith become nihilists. I know many. But Yeats gave me the experience of Western Hermeticism which has been my salvation. This is one of his acts of faith: WHATEVER FLAMES UPON THE NIGHT / MAN'S OWN RESINOUS HEART HAS FED and THE SOUL IS SELF-DELIGHTING, SELF-APPEASING, SELF AFFRIGHTING AND IT'S OWN SWEET WILL IS HEAVEN'S WILL.