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| William Butler Yeats and his wife Georgie, late 1920s |
The other day, an anonymous commenter alluded to a Yeats poem that I had not read or if I had, it was forgotten. Strange to me -- that the image of coats and capes and robes and being naked are haunting me of late -- it's all been said before, but there's something comforting about poetry buried deep in the unconscious peering out through my same eyes.
A Coat
I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat:
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world's eyes
As though they'd wrought it.
Song, let them take it,
For there's more enterprise
In walking naked.
William Butler Yeats
oh so lovely. oh so true. why is it that contemporary writers and poets just don't provoke the same marvel of life?
ReplyDeleteSo odd. I feel naked lately. And I just bought a dress covered in embroidery. I will wear it and still, feel naked.
ReplyDeleteTo me that's true poetry: there isn't one word that can be missed or could be replaced. Such a wonderful rhyme too. And, of course, the thoughts it voices...
ReplyDeleteWow. You were definitely on a wavelength with WBY, weren't you? This brings to mind, in a much less literary vein, the lyrics to the old Melanie song, "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma."
ReplyDeleteThank you for this.
ReplyDeleteOh My God - that is an amazing poem
ReplyDeleteThe Irish is really coming through in that one.
Injustice gets turned on its head
I lost a silver bracelet in the graveyard where Yeats lies, in the shadow of Benbulben.
ReplyDeleteAn offering, perhaps, to greatness.
I am jealous that you've visited Yeats' gravesite. That sounds silly, I guess. I turn fifty in late August, and I was hoping to pay a visit to all my favorite poets' and writers' haunts, but it doesn't look like it'll happen this year --
DeleteOh Elizabeth, I so much wish you could do this! You will, you know. I'm saying it, therefore it will be true ;-)
ReplyDelete