--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Why should the imagination of a man Long…" description: "\"Why should the imagination of a man Long past his prime remember things that are Emblematical of love and war?\" — William Butler Yeats" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/william-butler-yeats-350_imagination_why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long_1360311.png" --- # Why should the imagination of a man Long past his prime… ![“Why should the imagination of a man Long past his prime remember things that are Emblematical of love and war?” quote by William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/william-butler-yeats-350_imagination_why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long_1360311.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/william-butler-yeats-350_imagination_why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long_1360311.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/william-butler-yeats-350_imagination_why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long_1360311.png) > “Why should the imagination of a man Long past his prime remember things that are Emblematical of love and war?” [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Questioning why an older man's imagination clings to symbols of love and war, suggesting nostalgia or lingering idealism. **In simple terms:** Older man wonders about love and war symbols. Key Takeaway Reflect on lingering ideals. Themes nostalgia memory war love Mood contemplative melancholic Type philosophical poetic When to use this quote - reading poetry - discussing literature - personal reflection Key Concepts symbolism aging idealism Questions to Reflect On - What symbols still influence you? - Do they help or hinder growth? A Different Perspective May overlook present realities. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Emblematical Love](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/emblematical-love-4653587/) [Imagination](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imagination/) [Imagination Man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imagination-man-1681093/) [Long](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long/) [Long Past](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long-past-527106/) [Love](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/love/) [Love and war](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/love-and-war/) [Memory](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/memory/) [Men](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/men/) [Past](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/past/) [Prime](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prime/) [Remember](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/remember/) [Remember Things](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/remember-things/) [Should](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/should/) [War](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/war/) ## Related quotes > [Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-johnson/were-it-not-for-imagination-a-man-would-be-as-happy-in-arms-of-a/) [Samuel Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-johnson/) > [Woe to the man who tries to stretch the imagination of man He shall be mocked he shall be scourged by the blinkered guardians…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-weiss/woe-to-the-man-who-tries-to-stretch-the-imagination-of-man-he-shall/) [Peter Weiss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-weiss/) > [Gaston was not only a fierce lover, with endless wisdom and imagination, but he was also, perhaps, the first man in the history of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabriel-garc-a-m-rquez/gaston-was-not-only-a-fierce-lover-with-endless-wisdom-and/) [Gabriel Garcia Marquez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabriel-garc-a-m-rquez/) > [There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/khalil-gibran/there-is-a-space-between-man-s-imagination-and-man-s-attainment-that/) [Khalil Gibran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/khalil-gibran/) > [“Imagination is not, as some poets have thought, simply synonymous with good. It may be either good or evil. 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Man is the work of nature, he exists in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/baron-d-holbach/men-always-fool-themselves-when-they-give-up-experience-for-systems/) [Baron d'Holbach](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/baron-d-holbach/) > [“Any concentration of the will displaces life and gives it bias in motion. Reality, he believed, was always trying to copy the imagination of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/any-concentration-of-the-will-displaces-life-and-gives-it-bias-in/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [If a man lived long enough, his past would always overtake him, no matter how fast he ran or how morally he tried to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/greg-iles/if-a-man-lived-long-enough-his-past-would-always-overtake-him-no/) [Greg Iles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/greg-iles/) > [A good memory, which nature has endowed us with, causes things long past to seem present.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leonardo-da-vinci/a-good-memory-which-nature-has-endowed-us-with-causes-things-long/) [Leonardo da Vinci](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leonardo-da-vinci/) > [How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/how-many-people-long-for-that-past-simpler-and-better-world-i-wonder/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) ## More by William Butler Yeats > [Time can but make her beauty over again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/time-can-but-make-her-beauty-over-again/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [I would have touched it like a child But knew my finger could but have touched Cold stone and water. I grew wild, Even…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/i-would-have-touched-it-like-a-child-but-knew-my-finger-could-but/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [You know what the Englishman's idea of compromise is? He says, Some people say there is a God. Some people say there is no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/you-know-what-the-englishman-s-idea-of-compromise-is-he-says-some/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast, Drowning love's lonely hour…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/beloved-let-your-eyes-half-close-and-your-heart-beat-over-my-heart/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [That toil of growing up; The ignominy of boyhood; the distress Of boyhood changing into man; The unfinished man and his pain.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/that-toil-of-growing-up-the-ignominy-of-boyhood-the-distress-of/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [I see a schoolboy when I think of him, With face and nose pressed to a sweet-shop window.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/i-see-a-schoolboy-when-i-think-of-him-with-face-and-nose-pressed-to-a/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [Only God, my dear, Could love you for yourself alone And not your yellow hair.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/only-god-my-dear-could-love-you-for-yourself-alone-and-not-your/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [We can only begin to live when we conceive life as Tragedy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/we-can-only-begin-to-live-when-we-conceive-life-as-tragedy/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate, those that I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/i-know-that-i-shall-meet-my-fate-somewhere-among-the-clouds-above/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [Great literature has always been written in a like spirit, and is, indeed, the Forgiveness of Sin, and when we find it becoming the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/great-literature-has-always-been-written-in-a-like-spirit-and-is/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [Where the wave of moonlight glosses The dim gray sands with light, Far off by furthest Rosses We foot it all the night, Weaving…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/where-the-wave-of-moonlight-glosses-the-dim-gray-sands-with-light-far/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [His element is so fine Being sharpened by his death, To drink from the wine-breath While our gross palates drink from the whole wine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/his-element-is-so-fine-being-sharpened-by-his-death-to-drink-from-the/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [We poets would die of loneliness but for women, and we choose our men friends that we may have somebody to talk about women…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/we-poets-would-die-of-loneliness-but-for-women-and-we-choose-our-men/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [Love is created and preserved by intellectual analysis, for we love only that which is unique, and it belongs to contemplation, not to action,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/love-is-created-and-preserved-by-intellectual-analysis-for-we-love/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream? For these red lips, with all their mournful pride, Mournful that no new wonder may betide,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/who-dreamed-that-beauty-passes-like-a-dream-for-these-red-lips-with/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) [Explore all 652 William Butler Yeats quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) ## More Imagination quotes > [Social responsibility above the level of family, or at most of tribe, requires imagination-- devotion, loyalty, all the higher virtues -- which a man…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-a-heinlein/social-responsibility-above-the-level-of-family-or-at-most-of-tribe/) [Robert A. Heinlein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-a-heinlein/) > [In literature and art memory is a synonym for invention. It is the life-blood of imagination, which faints and dies when the veins are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-aris-willmott/in-literature-and-art-memory-is-a-synonym-for-invention-it-is-the/) [Robert Aris Willmott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-aris-willmott/) > [A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antoine-de-saint-exup-ry/a-rock-pile-ceases-to-be-a-rock-pile-the-moment-a-single-man/) [Antoine de Saint-Exupery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antoine-de-saint-exup-ry/) > [Imagination is the greatest nation in the world!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bob-proctor/imagination-is-the-greatest-nation-in-the-world/) [Bob Proctor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bob-proctor/) > [Merkel has realized that the euro is not working, but she cannot change the narrative she has created because that narrative has caught the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-soros/merkel-has-realized-that-the-euro-is-not-working-but-she-cannot/) [George Soros](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-soros/) > [Life is what you make it¦If one refuses to use ones imagination..it will be boring.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/life-is-what-you-make-it-if-one-refuses-to-use-ones-imagination-it/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Jonah Lehrer is one of the most talented explainers of science that we’ve got. What a pleasure it is to follow his investigation of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/jonah-lehrer-is-one-of-the-most-talented-explainers-of-science-that/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [If you've got creativity, imagination, and intelligence, and you want to be hypnotised, then there's no reason you shouldn't be able to.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/keith-barry/if-you-ve-got-creativity-imagination-and-intelligence-and-you-want-to/) [Keith Barry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/keith-barry/) > [“The power of imagination is strongest in the place of solitude.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sunday-adelaja/the-power-of-imagination-is-strongest-in-the-place-of-solitude/) [Sunday Adelaja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sunday-adelaja/) > [A beard is something that is almost like a mirror to the viewer. When someone sees you wearing a beard, they're seeing something in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohsin-hamid/a-beard-is-something-that-is-almost-like-a-mirror-to-the-viewer-when/) [Mohsin Hamid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mohsin-hamid/) > [I like fantasy, but I don't live and breathe fantasy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-schmidt-hissrich/i-like-fantasy-but-i-don-t-live-and-breathe-fantasy/) [Lauren Schmidt Hissrich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-schmidt-hissrich/) > [While the world of reality has its limits, the world of your imagination is without boundaries](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wayne-dyer/while-the-world-of-reality-has-its-limits-the-world-of-your/) [Wayne Dyer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wayne-dyer/) > [Edgy is fine - I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination - but what's wrong with a good ol' belly laugh?…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carol-burnett/edgy-is-fine-i-m-not-a-prude-by-any-stretch-of-the-imagination-but/) [Carol Burnett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carol-burnett/) > [With VR, we have this same vision, which is create this ultimate platform for sharing your imagination. Our huge community of 300,000 developers creates…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-baszucki/with-vr-we-have-this-same-vision-which-is-create-this-ultimate/) [David Baszucki](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-baszucki/) > [I like the idea of letting the music do its own work and the stories being more expressionful - if that's a word -…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johnny-flynn/i-like-the-idea-of-letting-the-music-do-its-own-work-and-the-stories/) [Johnny Flynn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johnny-flynn/) [Browse all 9,060 Imagination quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imagination/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Why should the imagination of a man Long past his prime remember things that are Emblematical of love and war?", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "William Butler Yeats" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long-past-his-prime-remember/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Imagination" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long-past-his-prime-remember/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/william-butler-yeats-350_imagination_why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long_1360311.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/william-butler-yeats-350_imagination_why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long_1360311.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/william-butler-yeats-350_imagination_why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long_1360311.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Why should the imagination of a man Long past his prime remember things that are Emblematical of love and war?” — William Butler Yeats", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "William Butler Yeats", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Why should the imagination of a...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long-past-his-prime-remember/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/why-should-the-imagination-of-a-man-long-past-his-prime-remember/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```