'Cold' would be using a discerning, dispassionate eye, because death will always win in the end. Yeats’ Grave, Drumcliff Churchyard, Drumcliffe, Co. Sligo (outside Sligo is Drumcliff Churchyard, a Church of Ireland cemetery) Yeats chose to be interred here, where his grandfather was once a minister. Horseman, pass by!”. The loved one that understood his distain for the hindering nature of man. Of course at the time distorted views and thoughts of eastern thought and even jewish mysticism were all around but I understand Yeats being more close to a more "local" mysticism -Irish lore and myths and symbols I guess- and well, a harmless nationalism intended to save "tradition", if the focus is on Under Ben Bulben as a whole. Keep on sharing your thoughts :) imarksweb.netimarksweb.net. Maybe at the end he regards passion as not truly a raison d'être. "Cast a cold eye on life, On death: Horseman pass by!" Have visited this place several times now and would recommend it. Yeats died in France in 1939. What I loved about “Yeats’ Grave” as a teenage girl just starting to write her own poetry was the drama of it — the swooping, rather taunting tone of it, the suggestion of romance and humanness behind the legendary writer’s name. In other words, there's no intrinsic meaning to life. It is, after all, his epitaph. Spend your time with someone who casts a passionate eye on life and by all means read and learn from my poetry! Ever since I visited 10 years ago, I've been pondering the meaning of his words, and I think perhaps it could be that he is saying, 'Cast a cold eye on life (the church, a symbol of resurrection), on death (the gravestones strewn about). But after his own death, in France, his body was transferred there, as if people treated his poem as a last will and testament. We recommend booking Yeats's Grave tours ahead of time to secure your spot. This is where poet Y. He never waited passively for inspiration and always worked systematically regardless of inspiration. And staying. In the history of symbols this tree is described as the way of life itself, a growing into that which eternally is and does not change; which springs from the union of opposites and, by its eternal presence, also makes that union possible.” Again, sadly there´s no proper quotation as I´m not into the "neo-jungian" or new-age movement in any way. The church has a cafe and a gift shop associated with it. Measurement began our might: Forms a stark Egyptian thought, Forms that gentler Phidias wrought." poetry. Cemeteries are mostly quiet and reflection comes a bit easier. DRUMCLIFFE, a parish, in the Lower half-barony of CARBKRY, county of SLIGO, and province of CONNAUGHT, 3 miles from Sligo This place anciently called Cnoc na teagh, was once a large town, A monastery was founded here, in 590, by St. Columba, who appointed his disciple, St. Thorian, or Mothorian, abbot, and to his office episcopal jurisdiction was united : the see was subsequently united … I don't believe W.B. Yeats funeral. aspects of his life. I think Yeats does so in his poem.Yeats strongly exhorts: “Poet and sculptor, do the work,Nor let the modish painter shirkWhat his great forefathers did.Bring the soul of man to God,Make him fill the cradles right.”Is he not saying that the physical flesh must do the work of making art, an ultimate mystical work, to join the soul of man to “god.” As do they join man’s immediate interest in life with the ancient folk-soul.“Where Ben Bulben sets the scene.- - - - - And ancient Ireland knew it all.”And so does he exhort the reader. It will not wait for inspiration, but will supply it as necessary.His selection of those four lines bear the weight of all the ones above them in his poem “Under Ben Bulben”. This may sound very absurd and parapsicological babble from nowadays view but it´s historical fact and helps understand the cultural "climate" of the time. I´ll quote him, he actually writes better english than me, it´s not my native tongue :) : “The alchemist saw the union of opposites under the symbol of the tree… the symbol of the cosmic tree rooted in this world and growing up to heaven-the tree that is also man. Perhaps Yeats is recommending a stoical approach to life, to put our own brief lives in perspective? What she means here is less clear, but we might see the ‘grave’ as representing death of Thanatos, the death-force, and the ‘bed’ as representing the life-force of Eros and sex; however, there may also be a suggestion in ‘bed’ of death as just a sleep, as a nod to religious belief that incorporates a belief in the afterlife. This was Yeats' self penned epitaph together with the instructions that the grave consist of "no marble, no conventional phrase". It is best known as the final resting place of W.B. Whatever your beliefs, whether you think that death is the end and you just lie in the … How much does over-work affect happiness? Life goes on with or without him. Yeats and his wife Georgiana ("George" on her gravestone) are buried just to the left of the main entry to the Drumcliff Church (please see my review). The Michael Robartes phase is heavily charged with hermetic (or what was considered "hermetic" at the time) simbology. Nearby also is the grave of Shelley, drowned at age twenty-nine, a mere seventeen months after Keats’s death, his body found with a copy of Keats’s 1820 volume of poetry in his breast pocket. Your explanation seems to fit well with Yeats' interest in Daoism.Many thanks also to others who have provided comments. First and second lines are straightforward, then followed by mystery of third line - how connected to first lines?The 4 horseman of the apocalypse are conquest, war, famine, death.The spitaph addresses a single horseman.If the first, then a wish that gravesite remain free of of foreign government.If the second, then a wish that gravesite remain free of war including suppressed uprising of 1916 (100 years ago as I write).If the third, then the horseman has no hold on Yeats, being dead, and so 'pass by. Bates: “Yeats’ suggests that his creative efforts always involved day-dreaming. interest because he has been widely held to have been a I did not read "cast a cold eye..." as an injunction or directive, but rather a self-description. become older. IMHO -and I absolutely LOVE that poem, that phrase and him having it as his epitaph- the "key" may lay around there and to me it points to some alchemical writings that focus on the "marriage" of opposites (Rosa Alchimica kinda "gives away" Yeats being familiar with such writings). about creative effort. When you approach Drumcliff on the Donegal to Sligo road, you will first notice the remains of a round tower. Though grave-diggers' toil is long, ... William Butler Yeats is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. “It was a simple place,” says Oxford professor Roy Foster, author of the two-volume WB Yeats: A Life. My interest was aroused by the epitaph on his gravestone in the “Life is too silly to be serious about”.....and below is my interpretation of the Yeats riddle:“In the greater scheme of things nothing is really that important Don’t take this trip too seriously (cold eye).For life will dance upon your grave (horseman pass by; as in the conveyor belt of life does not stop when you get off)” sorry, I could not get the said photo to post, Yeat's epitaph invites reflection and comment. Bit boring, needs some jizzing up. His headstone says... "Cast a cold eye On life, on death. If you are a resident of another country or region, please select the appropriate version of Tripadvisor for your country or region in the drop-down menu. When I asked an Irish friend of mine if that meant anything to him, he said "Sligo.......a beautiful (and very poetic) county. What are the characteristics of a good society? Yeats’ epitaph is the last stanza of his poem, ‘. Nice to think that both Yeats and Kazantzakis both ride with the horsemen. That said and me not being remotely a scholar on Yeats :) IMHO that phrase in particular hints to the alchemical idea of "CONJUNCTIO" or "Coincidentia Oppositorum" that is, the "unity of opposites" as Dr. Jung wrote. However, Yeats has the wisdom and wit to realise that in the end such philosophical musings mean little to the plain person busy with day to day life, the casual passer by who glances at his grave, hence horseman pass by. feelings that tend to get lost in prose. A grave that I think doesn’t represent the great poet that he was , in a lovely grave yard with its celtic crosses on the main road to Sligo ,worth a stop to say you visited the most renowned poet of Ireland , and to think how technology has moved forward since his death , not even a horse to be seen just speeding cars as and lorry’s . 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