National Poetry Month: A Coat by William Yeats

[lokifan_import]

More Yeats, because I love him. Also because I’ve been reading Angel, by Cliff McNish – two teenage girls, one’s on the edge of the popular group and is making her way ‘in’, one’s a total misfit, they become friends, etc. It’s an often-done plotline but a great book, and reminded me of Walking Naked by Alyssa Brugman, an even better one. Walking Naked introduced me to the poem (the title is actually taken from it) and A Coat is probably the first poem I ever fell in love with. Even my sister, who I borrowed Walking Naked from – and Middle Sister is not the kind who reads – remembered the poem years later. :) We had a conversation on the way home from school about WHAT DOES IT MEAN WE DON’T UNDERSTAND.


A Coat by William Yeats

I made my song a coat
Covered in 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.



This is one of those I accidentally learnt by heart. I do love it. ‘Embroideries/ out of old mythologies’ is one of those perfect, succinct phrases that unexpectedly defines a concept for me – just like good poetry is meant to do. Of course, I still love to embroider all my songs with old mythologies, but perhaps I’ll grow out of it.

Comments

[klashfor.livejournal.com]

Wow that is beautiful.

For my Christmas you must send me some of your favourite Yeats. I've never read him and if it's like this (difficult to understand but beautiful) I want it.

[lokifan]

I'll definitely do that! Yeats is probably my favourite poem of all time. I've read The Second Coming so many times I could probably recite it from memory!