Irish poets, earn your trade, Sing whatever is well made, Scorn the sort now growing up All out of shape from toe to top, Their unremembering hearts and heads Base-born products of base beds.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Yeats urges Irish poets to write well-made work and avoid the shallow art emerging in his time.
- In plain terms
- Poets should craft quality work and reject the poor art being made now.
- What can you take from it?
- Prioritize quality and tradition over trendy, shallow work.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What defines good art?
- How do you maintain standards?
Another view
The criticism of 'base beds' is subjective and potentially elitist.
More from William Butler Yeats
Now that my ladder's gone, I must lie down where all the ladders start In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.
Permalink to quote #167 Under bare Ben Bulben's head In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
Permalink to quote #169 Players and painted stage took all my love, And not those things that they were emblems of.
Permalink to quote #166
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