Poetry Response #7

The Coming of Wisdom with Time
William Butler Yeats
(1865 – 1939)

Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth.


“The Coming of Wisdom with Time” by William Butler Yeats is about a person gaining knowledge as time progresses. The poem itself is like the cycle of life; it begins talking about life and ending it in death. It also has an array of emotions from happiness, to sadness, and grief.

In the first line of the poem Yeats states, “Through leaves are many, the root is one”. A tree is a metaphor for life; it has the ability to live for hundreds of years, surviving on its roots for water and nutrients. As time passes, a tree grows leaves that fall off the limbs in the fall and ultimately wither away in the winter.

The second and third lines of the poem, “Through all the lying days of my youth/ I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun,” relate to a person’s youth. Children do not give much of a care in the world and do as they please; they are set on having fun and don’t figure out (well the majority of children don’t figure out) what death is until they grow older. When Yeats says, “Lying days of my youth” it illustrates knowledge. We know now what we believed in when we were younger was fabricated and realize we were basically lying to ourselves/being lied to.

I enjoyed reading this poem because it was simple and very true. As the years go on a person gets older, their knowledge grows with them. They aren’t seeing the pretend world they saw when they were younger; they are seeing the world for what is really is and that can wither away a person.