W. B. Yeats. W.B. Yeats's epitaph

Considered one of the world’s greatest poets, Nobel Laureate W.B. Yeats was born #OnThisDay in 1865.

 W. B. Yeats's epitaph

"Under bare Ben Bulben's head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid …
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.Horseman, pass by!"

W.B. Yeats's epitaph is found on his grave in Drumcliff churchyard, Ireland, and was written by himself. The wording and the proposed place of burial were described in ‘Under Ben Bulben’, written on September 4, 1938, a few months before the poet's death. (Ben Bulben is the mountain above Drumcliff.) Yeats died in France, and because of WWII his remains were not brought back for burial at the designated spot until 1948.