Under Ben Bulben
"Under Ben Bulben" is a poem written by Irish poet W. B. Yeats.Composition
It is believed to be one of the last poems he wrote, being drafted when he was 73, in August 1938 when his health was already poor.Yeats's gravestone
The last three lines of the poem were composed with the intention that they should be used as the epitaph on his gravestone in Drumcliffe churchyard. His wish was fulfilled.Readings
The poem, read by actor Richard Harris, opens and closes an album of Yeats's poems set to music, entitled Now And In A Time To Be.Related
The title of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry's first novel, Horseman, Pass By, is derived from the last three lines of this poem. The same is true about the French writer Michel Déon's book Horseman, Pass By!
