Words and Magic

I didn't understand Yeats when I first read his essay about magic. Incantations and spells is what came to mind, and given his reputation for being, well, very poetic in his take on reality, I couldn't really wrap my head around language having that much power.

Anyone who has ever experienced a deep relationship with someone else has been a part of the phenomenon: a thought, a sentence, even a word--the wrong adjective, modifier, choice of noun--slips out and changes the whole nature of an interaction, a conversation, a relationship. The language comes out and, like it or not, synapses fire, neurotransmitters move from dendrite to dendrite, and before you know it, you're in a lurch. Conversely, something apropos a bit of humor, an observation at just the right time unexpectedly makes the whole thing disappear again. Chemicals settle back into equilibrium. What's more magical, in that case, than a conversation? And what's more impressive, sometimes, than getting across to someone you love exactly what it is that you mean?