"But, Kredwyn," you say, "we thought you were working with fiction here. Why the Yeats reference? And why such a cool and convoluted reference at that?"
After all, that is the line etched into WB Yeats's tombstone. And it is nothing if not convoluted. Yet in its own way that phrase has come to us via Yeats's own hand via the last section 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!
And yes, I have spent many an hour sitting and wondering "What the hell does that mean, yeh auld man?"
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