Arts & Sciences

A Coat

by W. B. Yeats 1865–1939

From Responsibilities (1914)

Arts & Sciences

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 eye
As though they'd wrought it.
Song, let them take it
For there's more enterprise
In walking naked.

✦ ✦ ✦

The poet had made his songs a coat 'covered with embroideries / Out of old mythologies'. Fools took it and wore it in the world's eyes, so now he will walk naked.

MLA

Yeats, W. B. “A Coat.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/33/.

Chicago

Yeats, W. B. “A Coat.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/33/.

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