SOURCE: "From the National to the Universal," in The Dublin Magazine, Vol. 4, Nos. 3 & 4, Autumn/Winter 1965, pp. 28-35.

In the following excerpt, Stock concentrates on Yeats's concern for Ireland and his involvement with magic, tracing the presence of both in his poetry throughout his career by focusing on a selection of poems that unites these interests.

"I am persuaded," says Yeats in Autobiographies, "that our intellects at twenty contain all the truths we shall ever find, but as yet we do not know truths that belong to us from opinion caught up in casual irritation or momentary fantasy. As life goes on, we discover that certain truths sustain us in defeat, or give us victory, whether over ourselves or others, and it is these truths, tested by passion, that we call convictions."

Whether or not this is true of all men it is an illuminating truth about Yeats. From...