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Poet: William Butler Yeats
Poem: Gratitude To The Unknown Instructors
Volume: The Winding Stair and Other Poems
Year: Published/Written in 1933
Comment 1 of 1, added on March 19th, 2010 at 3:32 PM.
Gratitude To The Unknown Instructors
This is Yeats' personal thank you note to the great teachers throughout the ages. Their vast body of discourse can be distilled into a simple metaphor: "All things hang like a drop of dew / Upon a blade of grass." Of course, this simple distillation of all the knowledge of all the thinkers of all times embodies the complexity of the thinking handed down to us. What is simple is complex; what is complex is simple. Yeats has been enlightened and wishes to share his enlightenment with us in the form of a thank you note. This abbreviated format allows us to consider that Yeats' instructors are our instructors also. At the same time, Yeats' format has enabled him to deliver the distilled knowledge to us. It is his gift to us, and he has joined the ranks of the other instructors by becoming our instructor. Whenever any one of us incorporates the knowledge contained in the note, the work that the instructors undertook has been "brought to pass." The body of knowledge can accumulate forever, and, no matter how large it becomes, the work of the instructors is done whenever enlightenment occurs within any one person. For Yeats, his learning has culminated with the realization that all manner of being is transitory like a drop of dew. At the same time, each drop of dew is as profound in importance as any other manifestation of being. Ironically, the presence of a drop of dew symbolizes the concept of nothingness because of its impermanence, yet we can consider the idea of life never-ending through the drop of dew because we know that a drop of water transforms endlessly. The simplicity of Yeats' message is deceptive because it can be pondered throughout time, and the facets of inquiry are endless. Yeats has made all of us who ponder his message philosophers, and by context instructors, in our own right. The knowledge is perpetuated through all things and through us.
Beth from United States
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This is Yeats' personal thank you note to the great teachers throughout the ages. Their vast body of discourse can be distilled into a simple metaphor: "All things hang like a drop of dew / Upon a blade of grass." Of course, this simple distillation of all the knowledge of all the thinkers of all times embodies the complexity of the thinking handed down to us. What is simple is complex; what is complex is simple. Yeats has been enlightened and wishes to share his enlightenment with us in the form of a thank you note. This abbreviated format allows us to consider that Yeats' instructors are our instructors also. At the same time, Yeats' format has enabled him to deliver the distilled knowledge to us. It is his gift to us, and he has joined the ranks of the other instructors by becoming our instructor. Whenever any one of us incorporates the knowledge contained in the note, the work that the instructors undertook has been "brought to pass." The body of knowledge can accumulate forever, and, no matter how large it becomes, the work of the instructors is done whenever enlightenment occurs within any one person. For Yeats, his learning has culminated with the realization that all manner of being is transitory like a drop of dew. At the same time, each drop of dew is as profound in importance as any other manifestation of being. Ironically, the presence of a drop of dew symbolizes the concept of nothingness because of its impermanence, yet we can consider the idea of life never-ending through the drop of dew because we know that a drop of water transforms endlessly. The simplicity of Yeats' message is deceptive because it can be pondered throughout time, and the facets of inquiry are endless. Yeats has made all of us who ponder his message philosophers, and by context instructors, in our own right. The knowledge is perpetuated through all things and through us.
Beth from United States