Nick Osbahr
The Coming of Wisdom with Time
William Butler Yeats
This poem, though with a short length, is filled with a powerful meaning. It discusses that everyone is told lies in their youth, and as we mature, and enter into adulthood,we understand that these are just lies we were told. The poem compares the trivial ¨truths” that we are told as leaves to as plants, and that as we mature, the leaves fall off, so ¨Now I may wither into the truth.¨ The poem uses the truth as a metaphor for adulthood, and that all the childish things we are told just ¨wither” away as we enter and live among others in the real world.
The poem declares that ¨though leaves are many, the root is one;¨ which I felt as if it is explaining that there are many ¨truths” we are told. and with these truths, there is always one spot to where we get this information, and that is from someone who we trust. Along with that, Yeats uses an extended metaphor of a flower as the life of a person emerging into adulthood. Here he uses the flower as a beautiful lie, while he uses the root as the ugly truth.
Yeats also addresses the stereotypical idea that older people are the wises. He explains throughout the poem that peoples youth is wasted due to the lies, and safety net of beliefs, people place on and around their children. He also explains that as the years of youth wither away, the truth is slowly revealed, causing older people to be wser than the youth, because there is no rose colored glass causing the world to be viewed differently than it already is.
