Page 123 "It's like the Yeats poem," he said.



William Butler Yeats
(photographed by G. C. Beresford)

 

From page 123 of the book: "...I looked up and away from where we stood, observing the lazy green countryside, searching for nothing in particular under that bright Sunday heat, when suddenly I spotted the brown suit Revenant had pointed out hanging from a window. Owen noticed it, too.
    "It's like the Yeats poem," he said. "'Fifteen apparitions have I seen; the worst a coat upon a coat hanger.'"
    "What do we do with that?" I asked.
    "It remains to be seen," he said tiredly.
    The Yeats poem gave me a shudder; as I remembered it from years past. Largely an old man's sensations about solitude and mysteries of the night, it was written in 1938, a year before the poet had died. Owen had originally read it to me during our freshman year at college in Peoria. It was my introduction to Yeats, an introduction that would bring on the rest of modern literature like a flood. Three months prior to hearing the poem, I'd entered his room for the first time. I'd gone in to say "hello.""


                                                                                     

The Apparitions

William Butler Yeats

Because there is safety in derision
I talked about an apparition,
I took no trouble to convince,
Or seem plausible to a man of sense.
Distrustful of thar popular eye
Whether it be bold or sly.
Fifteen apparitions have I seen;
The worst a coat upon a coat-hanger.

I have found nothing half so good
As my long-planned half solitude,
Where I can sit up half the night
With some friend that has the wit
Not to allow his looks to tell
When I am unintelligible.
Fifteen apparitions have I seen;
The worst a coat upon a coat-hanger.

When a man grows old his joy
Grows more deep day after day,
His empty heart is full at length,
But he has need of all that strength
Because of the increasing Night
That opens her mystery and fright.
Fifteen apparitions have I seen;
The worst a coat upon a coat-hanger.