Our Winding Stair Poem by Ananta Madhavan

A poet whom I much admire, William Butler Yeats,
Is quoted as having said: "Out of the quarrel with others,
We make rhetoric, but out of the quarrel with ourselves,
We make poetry." He raged against old age and the loss
Of his Muse, as though the circus animals were deserting
The master who has tended them and depends on their antics.


If we look deep enough, we see that anger springs from
A quarrel with ourselves. Yeats also wrote "A Dialogue
Of Self and Soul", conceding his own plurality. Perhaps
We are, each one of us, several selves with many a role,
Learning from our own feuds and moods,
To live at peace with self and soul.

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