Yes, the poem continues to work vividly in all kinds of world situations that have followed Yeats’s life. In the background, he did have his own pretty idiosyncratic theory of historical cycles, though.
Still sends chills into my soul whenever I re-read it. So powerful. Here is another poem that captures the emptiness and meaningless of dictators, tyrants, self-regarding bullies
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https://open.spotify.com/show/0IMRZJhGpsfxjnBO5Oz97x?si=3c89536cf7bf43c3
This poem grabbed me back in college. Always a favorite.
"The best lack conviction, given some time to think.
And the worst are full of passion without mercy." https://youtu.be/1boAusqiBMs?si=GnSvg1X8vj42f7jY