National Gallery of Ireland: W.B. Yeats' Tombstone
National Gallery of Ireland: W.B. Yeats' Tombstone
W.B. Yeats gave instructions for his epitaph and final resting place a few months before his death, in the final verse of Under Ben Bulben:
“Under bare Ben Bulben's head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid,
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago; a church stands near,
By the road an ancient Cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase,
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!”
I based this pin directly on the engraving of the tombstone itself. The lines come into my head a lot but their meaning is quite slippery: do they encourage feelings of acceptance or withdrawal? Should we daydream more? Or aim for objectivity in both life and death?
Image: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) (1903) by William Strang
• Soft enamel pin
• Gold plated with black enamel
• 35mm wide
• Embossed with logo
• Two black rubber clutches
• Comes with its own special backing card with story
• Guaranteed good time