Under Ben Bulben
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Under Ben Bulben is a poem written by celebrated Irish poet W. B. Yeats. It was one of the last poems he wrote in his lifetime, and the last three lines decorate his gravestone in Drumcliffe, Co.Sligo, Ireland. The poem, read by actor Richard Harris, opens and closes an album of Yeats poems set to music, entitled Now And In A Time To Be.
Under bare Ben Bulben's head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!