Forum / A father's letter to his son: to all unfettered souls

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  Bill Yarrow

  Sep 27, 03:24am

  "A poet should feel quite free to say in the morning that he believes in marriage and in the evening that he no longer believes in it; in the morning that he believes in God and in the evening that he does not believe in God, the important thing being not that he keep his mental consistency but that he preserve the integrity of his soul. And by soul I wish to use a word which includes all that we mean by senses, passions, appetites, his memory of the past, his anticipations, joyous or fearful, of the future. The soul, this inner and outer self, in forcing its way that it may preserve its integrity, must be permitted to make every kind of change and every kind of experiment and venture. On no account must it be fettered, nor will this lead to lawlessness for every soul of man carries within itself its own principle of order."

  --John Butler Yeats to William Butler Yeats
  (quoted in Ellmann's Yeats: The Man and the Masks, chapter 2)

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  Sam Rasnake

  Sep 27, 03:31am

  Absolutely.

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  MaryAnne Kolton

  Sep 27, 05:41am

  Bill, love Yeats and this piece is such a truism.

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  Gloria Mindock

  Sep 27, 02:13pm

  I really liked reading this. Love Yeats.

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  Darryl Price

  Sep 28, 11:17pm

  Wow! That's powerful stuff. Again, wow.

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  Joani Reese

  Sep 28, 11:38pm

  His dad forgot to tell him to avoid the Ouija board, though. Some things a parent just forgets to pass along, and sometimes, it's for the best.

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