I MADE my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world's eyes
As though they'd wrought it.
Song, let them take it,
For there's more enterprise
In walking naked.
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From guest Chris (contact)
Let the people who imitate me, like children, take what they can from my work and enjoy the benefits. I myself, am something of a fool too, still pursuing my song, but I will press on. -
Categorising
From guest grace (contact)
I first read this poem in a book that has previously been mentioned in posts, [walking naked], and i rather enjoyed it. :P Hmmm, this might seem like a silly question but i'm using this poem in my 'poem anthology' thing for school, and i was wondering if anyone knows what category this would go under (e.g. some other categories; friendship, courage, etc.)...as im having a hard time trying to find one out :P please post a comment if you know :) thankyouuu. -
admiration
From guest elizabeth (contact)
i think that this poem is insperational and actually my binder is this poem and others by Yeats. I admire poetry but nobody around me gets it. i write poems and they laugh at me. we truly live in a world of contained emotion if I cannot express myself through poetry -
From guest Alyssa (contact)
Maybe in saying "song, let them take it" he is telling the song to let the fools take its coat. not simply "as for the song, they can take it" Im not sure, but it works that way as well. -
walking naked
From guest Han (contact)
i first heard this from the book Walking Naked. which is an amazing book. i'm not really great at understanding poems, but i think this is saying that we all put on like a coat of what we want people to see, but if someone takes our identity, then it is better to let people see the real you. like i said, im not good at this stuff great poem though! -
This is a poem worth revisiting many times. Yeats had a rebel spirit, one in which pride would not allow him to easily follow in the paths of others. We hear his proud voice yelling, "Song, LET THEM TAKE IT..." He realizes that he has so much within himself that he can shed his style, his "perceived" reputation, and go on with the more. This poem should or could serve as a mantra that we should not get boxed in. Perhaps we, too, possess the Naked. Perhaps, too, we have an array of styles, talents, and voices that need to be explored. This can only happen when the naked is embraced. It comes with time and conviction. It comes with taking chances.
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seems the write is about plagiarism...
and poet brings out his emotions in vivid words...
good flow of words and rhyme...
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The fact is, this poem means something different and significant to everyone, including the poet, so your opinion is always right. Isn?t that the beauty of poetry?
In my opinion, the speaker in the poem revealed to the world what he wanted them to see. He made himself an image he was proud of, and threw it over himself.
He was robbed of this image by someone who couldn?t get their own. Then he realized that he doesn?t need to manufacture an image. ?The fools? can have his coat because he?s got the stuff. It?s inside him, and no one can take that.
What i really loved about this poem is the way everyone really relates differently when they first read it. When I read it, for example, it reminded me of when I was bullied in grammar school and made me smile to think that now, I am TOTALLY walking naked. -
THis poem rocks, i was first drawn to it by a book called 'Walking Naked' by Alyssa Brugman. If u ever get a chance to read it, DO NOT pass it up, its amazing. only a thin one!I think this poems about your soul, your identity& how only you understand it. But when you try and express it to the world, make it into a coat to wear 4 others to see, it'll never be the same.Fools will catch it, see it in the worlds eyes, diminish the representation of your soul you worked so hard to sew together, potray, Out of old mythologies-from your past, from the history of the world. But yeats is saying, let them take your dignity, flounce about in it - you have the origional copy-you dont need to try & express it-just try and live it-walk naked!
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I love the imagination, that goes in to his shorter poems, and I like the idaea in this one that he just wants to be original, his attitude that if they want to take his style, so be it, he will make another.
~kar -
Actually, if you do some research, it is most likely a poetic companion to his later poem "To a poet who would have me Praise certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine." During the time of his poetry's writing, Ireland was in its Literary Renaissance. Other "poets" imitated his style (the old mythologies in particular, inthat he was known for incorporating Gaelic myth into his works). These poets became popular with the masses (whom Yeats would have trouble with, mainly in the theater), and because of this, Yeats decided to reinvent himself.
This coat represents his style, and once others flaunt it out in public, he no longer wants it. Though naked without the coat, he is at least original in his own skin, while the pretenders prance around in someone else's image. -
The song could be his unrequited love, Maud Gonne, or even his dream for Ireland, to be free.
The fact that few understood his love for her, or misinterpreted his poems directed towards her, and likewise misinterpreted his poems and his references to Ireland... also mentioned in "Easter 1916".
Many of his romantic poems of Ireland were celebrations of her mythology, and not intended as political fodder... by the "fools", Maud Gonne's husband at one time being one fo them.
Ireland and Maud, I gather, he believed could stand alone... they needed not his "promotion", incorrectley interpreted or not. -
hi everyone i'm only 14 and this poem is inspiring. I'm so glad that everyone can have a different veiw on this poem. If we knew what it really meant we couldn't really learn from it.
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hee hee... I have a new favorite poet.
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He's saying to the Song:
"Song, let them take it
For there's more enterprise
In walking naked."
Because, as you pointed out the adornments of religion only enthrall the fools!
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it's about religion. the song stands for something that is not tangible but part of our soul. When we makes it too a tangle item like a coat, like some people who where the religion just to impress people. A religion of "Old Mythologies". But fools ruin the religion by making it more than something of the heart. I don't know why he gives up the song at the end not the coat, maybe he gave up on religion in life.
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wats this poem all about i need help understanding it more
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I think in this poem the poet has talked about the poets and artists...those who create great pieces ...masterpieces... but they choose to live as a common men...this is a very nice poem
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W.B.Yeats knew a thing or two
about poetry and fools -
Short piece, jam packed with imagination. To me it sounds particularly angry, something like 'you have interpretted this incorrectly, and made it your when it is nothing to you.' Very sarcastic, and yet, I found myself admiring the rhyme sheme profusely. Very appropriate and striking.
PEace
Chris
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