In a letter written in Oct. 1927, addressed to his friend Olivia Shakespear Yeats stated “I am writing
a new tower poem ‘Sword and Tower,’ which is a choice of rebirth rather than deliverance from
birth. I make my Japanese sword and its silk covering my symbol of life” (The Letters of W.B
Yeats, pg. 729). It was published in 1929 as “A Dialogue of Self and Soul.” The poem’s central
idea can be deduced from the poet’s views on its origin. It revolves around the contrary ideas
concerning his “Heart” and “Soul.”
Interestingly, like “A Dialogue of Self and Soul” (1929), an another poem of Yeats, named “Sailing
to Byzantium” (1928), also speaks of the “heart” and “soul” conflict. However, there is a reversal
of approach and emphasis in both verses. For while in the former, instead of seeking deliverance
from “the crime of death and birth,” which would free him of “that sensual music [and] all neglect,”
the poet asks for “A charter to commit the crime once more.” In the latter, he opts for the “soul”
and “the artifice of eternity,” rather than choosing his “heart.” Hence, his “desire sickened heart”
that, the poet had asked the “sages to “consume” in “Sailing to Byzantium” wins the argument in
“A Dialogue of Self and Soul.” Agreeing to this viewpoint, Poet and biographer John Unterecker,
asserts in his book A Readers Guide to William Butler Yeats (1959) too, that “ “Sailing to
Byzantium,” the first poem of The Tower, not only establishes the tone for that collection but ––
almost point for point–– is “answered” by the opening poems of The Winding Stair, particularly
“A Dialogue of Self and Soul” in which Yeats explicitly chooses for his soul reincarnation rather
than [it being] a resting place in the artifice of eternity.” (pg. 169-70).