Now as at all times I can see in the mind’s eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary’s turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.
Credits
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and Nobel Prize laureate, widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. "The Magi," published in 1914 in his collection Responsibilities, was written as a companion piece to his earlier poem "The Nativity," exploring the same sacred moment from a bleaker, more restless angle. Yeats drew heavily on mysticism and esoteric symbolism throughout his work, and this poem reflects his lifelong fascination with cyclical history and spiritual incompletion.
