I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.
Can someone please explain to me what Yeats meant by this. My mind is in such overdrive that it doesn't speak to me like it normally would…
It's almost like if you gave me a crayon, I could draw a picture of what it means, but I just can't put it in words.
Read it in context on this here other website
thankyouverymuch.
4 Comments
My guess, especially in my depressed moods lately… he is talking about a breakup, being metaphorically stated as the bottom of a grave, where the ladders from the grave diggers start to head back up.
Kay, first, gotta remember, Beast..no MTV when they wrote this..no movies, no playstation…so people:better at the whole inner eye, imagnation, thing. What he means *chanels inner-Giles* is that all things of inner worth and beauty come from the lowly human beginings..as opposed to the perfect, hevanly we should ascribe to . *glares* you NEVER paid attention in English.
Mel
For me the poem is about superficiality vs the genuine. I think everybody, including Yeats, at some point ascribes to some sort of belief, or even attraction to another, in order to support themsleves (like a ladder). Eventually, however, these supports are usually removed forcing us to start from the genuine once more, from our inner selves.
I guess there isn't a way of 'knowing' what he meant without reading some sort of biography… but this is what the poem meant to me.
nice Robin, thanks for that!