['But Every Powerful Life Goes on its Way . . .']

Date of composition, and textual history. In his Journal (following a draft version of ‘The Mask’ of Aug. 1910), WBY wrote half a dozen lines (including deletions) that could be the start of a poem, possible lines for verse drama, or quickly versified thoughts. The context of the Journal makes these lines difficult to date, except insofar as they are likely to be composed after ‘The Mask’. It is possible that they are later than Aug. 1910, but they must be from before May 1911, which is the date of the next prose entry in the Journal. Over a few pages, WBY drafts ‘The Mask’, then these lines, followed by a version of ‘These are the Clouds’ (first composed in May), and then ‘A Drinking Song’ (composed in Feb.): it is likely that he was assembling pieces for GH10, copy for which had been promised to ECY since early Jul., and which was probably sent to the Cuala Press by the end of Aug. Although these lines might of course have been composed earlier, they are clearly still in the process of composition (and, indeed, on the verge of being abandoned), so seem likely to come from Aug. 1910, when WBY was composing busily at Coole. The lines were claimed by D. Donoghue in his edition of Mem. as a possible revision to the poem ‘Reconciliation’. However, that poem had reached what was to be its published form more than a year earlier, and it is difficult to see how these lines might have constituted a revision of it – Donoghue was perhaps led to the thought by ‘Too blinded by the sight of the mind's eye’ and ‘Too deafened’ (2, 3) and their resemblance to ‘Reconciliation’ 3: ‘the ears being deafened, the sight of the eyes blind’. If this is a revision, though, it is more of a thoroughgoing rewriting, or at least a start on such a thing; for ‘Reconciliation’ is in rhymed couplets, whereas the lines here are without rhyme. More likely, these lines were jotted down by WBY for further use or development (whether in lyric poetry or drama), and then simply left behind. The original MS is in WBY's Journal (Burns Collection, Boston College, fol. 84 v.); a transcription is in Mem. 259, and it is repr. and transcribed in Cornell, ISWGH, 206–207.