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!’
Irish poet W.B.Yeats, widely regarded as one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century, is buried in Drumcliff Churchyard in Co. Sligo. He spent much of his youth in the Sligo countryside where the ‘fairy faith’ (belief in the supernatural) was strong. The influence of the old songs and folk tales he heard then is evident in his early ‘Celtic Twilight’ poems such as ‘The Stolen Child’, ‘The Song of Wandering Aenghus’ and ‘The Hosting of the Sidhe.’
He lived through and chronicled some of the most tumultuous events of his country including the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence, and the Irish Civil War. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Along with Lady Gregory he founded the Abbey Theatre as a national theatre for Ireland. In 1922 he became a member of Seanad Éireann (the Irish Senate) where he served two terms, strongly arguing for an ecumenical approach to Irish law.
He is unusual among writers in that an extraordinary creative surge towards the end of his life produced poetry which equalled or even excelled his earlier work- poems such as ‘The Second Coming’, ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ and ‘Among School Children’ are regarded as some of the greatest work of the twentieth century.
‘Under Ben Bulben’ written in 1938 at the age of 73 is reckoned to be one of his last poems. In it he issues a clarion call to those who came after him to record the life and history of the new Irish nation.
Irish poets learn your trade
Sing whatever is well made…
Sing the peasantry, and then
Hard-riding country gentlemen,
The holiness of monks, and after
Porter-drinkers randy laughter…
That we in coming days may be
Still the indomitable Irishry!
W.B.Yeats died in France in 1938 and was buried there. After the war his remains were repatriated to Ireland and he was finally laid to rest where he wished to be, in Drumcliff Churchyard, under a gravestone featuring the inscription he himself had written.
THE CACHE
To log this cache you need to take a photo at these coordinates in which three things are clearly visible (see photo).
- Your hand holding a pen to honour the written word. (Every geocacher has a pen, right? But if you REALLY don't have one, a thumbs-up will do. )
- The inscription on W.B.Yeats’s grave.
- Ben Bulben, the mountain which looks down on Drumcliff.
Any logs that fail to meet these requirements will be deleted.Remember- post your photo with your log- DO NOT EMAIL IT TO THE CO. Please do not log a find unless you can log a photo. Every geocacher who logs a find must have an individual photo- no group logs please.
NOTE: There is a rather excellent multi nearby- GC1YRWC Tread Softly-Travelbug Hotel. It will bring you to one of Yeat's most famous poems- I recommend it highly!