William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939 / County Dublin / Ireland)

I've read five W. B. Yeats poems tonight and, It is strange to say but, I don’t believe Mr. Yeats’ poetry can be fully understood for at least a century. I believe he made use of poetic devices beyond the current intellectual boundaries of literature. It’s not stylistic, it’s graphed on a different grid and can only be partially appreciated by what can be plotted in ours. I find it jarring that for all my schooling, no instructor read us Yeats. Maybe this is one reason why but, how I wish they had! I see a lack in my life.

I found the ~POEM~ was very, 'soothing'~ with lost's of warmth, and melody.

This is actually in response to an argument between Yeats and George Moore who accused Yeats of being a poser and pretending that he was from a higher social order than he really was. So this is Yeats saying he doesn\'t care about his outward appearance and status, he is sloughing it all off, ridding himself of his coat.

I like poems written by simple words, then only the others can understand what you have written

Pruchnicki - how could anyone “take Yeats’ songs as their own”? You don’t make sense old chap. As for “naked” - if it means anything, it does not mean what you say it does. I cannot see Yeats “dissing” (do you have that word?) his early poetry as bad and dishonest, which is what you are suggesting. He says there is more enterprise in walking naked, which is something else. But what it is he does not say. It could mean he will write no more poetry (after all, the contemporary reader reading this poem, was not to know of what was to come.) .

Even the most astute reader can fall flat on his face when he misreads a word that didn't make any real sense when he first read it, but that he ignored in his eagerness to explicate the poem's meaning. I read 'from head to throat' for Yeats'
'from heel to throat.' Of course, in 1914 the word 'coat' meant overcoat or long coat, not the sport coat or jacket that I had in mind. And of course, Yeats' imagery is on the money! Maybe I do need a new pair of spectacles? Just by chance today, I was leafing through my paperback copy of 'Selected Poems and Four Plays, ' when there it was on pp.49-50, at the very top of the page - Out of old mythologies /From heel to throat'!

My goodness, he said, look at all the far-fetched comments posted today! Please consider the following version I discovered by doing a little research..

I made my song a coat
covered with embroideries
out of old mythologies
from head 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.
****************************************
Three sentences that are easily scanned by a reader. Yeats creates a metaphor for his songs (his verse!) in a coat of many colors that cover from head to throat.
From his intellect and imagination, Yeats says, he has written poems that are meant to be sung, perhaps in celebration of all those mythologies that Yeats studied and admired so much. The second sentence (stanza?) refers to the popularity of his verse that the ignorant or undiscerning take as their own. Finally, the apostrophe asserts that walking naked, exposing one's self to the reader, is a better and more honest tack to take than hiding behind the golden images of myths!

Another badly-presented poem - surely it isn't too much to ask for someone to get this feature right.

As for the poem, what do lines 4 to 6 mean? And how can there be “more enterprise/In walking naked” than in writing song? The poem is wonderfully made, but I feel it needs too much unstitching. A poem should carry its full meaning in itself – some poems may be hard to interpret, but their meaning should be entirely expressed in the poem’s words.

It is certainly his naked expression in poetry without strict form and style he was following earlier with mythologies and philosophic ideas! But he stands tall ever by his Byzantium poems that are my most favourite ones!

based on this 'original poem'

Colin J... (1/18/2007 3: 05: 00 PM)
The original poem is: -

A COAT

I made my song a coat
Covered with 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 more likely about plagiarism...presented in this lines-

But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world's eyes
As though they'd wrought it.

yeats might me talking about his self...he may be criticizing....(read below) ..when he'd written poems, ect. using the subject from irish mythology....

Yeats assembled for children a less detailed version, Irish Fairy Tales, which appeared in 1892. The Wanderings Of Oisin And Other Poems (1889) , took its subject from Irish mythology.

this is somewhat humorous, and the humor is presented in the last part-

Song, let them take it,
For there's more enterprise
In walking naked.

this is somewhat like telling that even he'd used the subjects in irish myth...
the myths, which represents culture, are apprieciated more than his writings....

well, one thing im sure is.....this is not a serious one....

hehehehe...hope i made sense....