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13.12: Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop

  • Page ID
    3225
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    [1]

    I met the Bishop on the road
    And much said he and I.
    ‘Those breasts are flat and fallen now,
    Those veins must soon be dry;
    Live in a heavenly mansion,
    Not in some foul sty.’

    ‘Fair and foul are near of kin,
    And fair needs foul,’ I cried.
    ‘My friends are gone, but that’s a truth
    Nor grave nor bed denied,
    Learned in bodily lowliness
    And in the heart’s pride.

    ‘A woman can be proud and stiff
    When on love intent;
    But Love has pitched his mansion in
    The place of excrement;
    For nothing can be sole or whole
    That has not been rent.’

    1932

    Contributors and Attributions


    1. Between 1929 and 1932, Yeats wrote seven poems featuring the wisdom of an old peasant woman who lived in Galway.

    13.12: Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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