Yeat’s Grave: Sligo, August, 1982

“Cast a cold Eye
On Life, on Death,
Horseman pass by!”
W.B. Yeats

The lettering was blue and gothic light
And had been painted on a simple sign
That lacked an arrow pointing to the site,
So once I parked I had to try and find

The place where they had put his once-moved bones
By walking through and round and in between,
And reading names and dates engraved in stones,
Until at last my eyes had finally seen

The one that said where he was laid to rest,
Where he’d requested that he be interred,
And brought an end to my augustan quest
By reading words I’d only just remembered

But there and then began to understand
By having visited that plot of land.