Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop
I met the Bishop on the road
And much said he and I.
`Those breasts are flat and fallen now
Those veins must soon be dry;
Live in a heavenly mansion,
Not in some foul sty.'
`Fair and foul are near of kin,
And fair needs foul,' I cried.
'My friends are gone, but that's a truth
Nor grave nor bed denied,
Learned in bodily lowliness
And in the heart's pride.
`A woman can be proud and stiff
When on love intent;
But Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent.'
Copyright Credit: From THE COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B. YEATS edited by Richard Finneran. Revisions and additional poems copyright © 1983, 1989 by Anne Yeats. Editorial matter and compilation copyright © 1983, 1989 by Macmillan Publishing Company. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC.
Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)