| Under Ben Bulben | |
|---|---|
| byW. B. Yeats | |
| Written | 1938 |
| First published in | Last Poems and Two Plays |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Elegy |
| Publisher | Cuala Press |
| Publication date | 1939 |
| Media type | Hardback |
| Lines | 94 |
| Full text | |
 Under Ben Bulben atWikisource | |
"Under Ben Bulben" is apoem written byIrish poetW. B. Yeats.
It is believed to be one of the last poems he wrote, being drafted when he was 73, in August 1938 when his health was already poor (he died in January 1939).[1]
"Under Ben Bulben" was first published in July 1939, six months after Yeats' death, as the first poem in the collectionLast Poems and Two Plays in a limited edition released by his sister. The trade editionLast Poems & Plays, published in 1940, added the content ofNew Poems and three poems printed inOn the Boiler. It also made "Under Ben Bulben" the final poem, a convention followed until the 1980s when it became clear that the original arrangement better reflected the poet's intentions.[2]
Ben Bulben is a large flat-topped rock formation inCounty Sligo, Ireland.[3] It is famous inIrish legend, appearing inThe Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne,[4] and was the site of a military confrontation during theIrish Civil War.[5]
The phrase "Mareotic Lake", which appears in the second line of the poem, is used in the classical religious workDe Vita Contemplativa to refer toLake Mariout in Egypt which was the location of theTherapeutae, a community of religious hermits.[6]
Phidias, mentioned in part IV of the poem, was one of the most influential sculptors in classical Athens. TheParthenon Frieze was probably sculpted under his direction.[7]
Yeats is buried in the churchyard ofDrumcliffe Church in Sligo, which stands at the foot of Ben Bulben.[8] The last three lines of the poem are used as the epitaph on Yeats' gravestone, and they were composed with that intention:[9]
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death
Horseman, pass by!
The title ofPulitzer Prize-winning authorLarry McMurtry's first novel,Horseman, Pass By, as well as the title of French writerMichel Déon's bookHorseman, Pass By! ,[10] are derived from the last line of this poem.
AlsoDennis Parry wrote a novel with the same title.
The poem, read by actorRichard Harris, opens and closes an album of Yeats's poems set to music, entitledNow and in a Time to Be.[11]
Now this class of persons may be met with in many places, for it was fitting that both Greece and the country of the barbarians should partake of whatever is perfectly good; and there is the greatest number of such men in Egypt, in every one of the districts, or nomes, as they are called, and especially around Alexandria; and from all quarters those who are the best of these therapeutae proceed on their pilgrimage to some most suitable place as if it were their country, which is beyond the Maereotic lake.
— De Vita Contemplativa .http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/philo-ascetics.html On Ascetics] (another name for theDe Vita Contemplativa), Section III.