2002
(from the William Butler Yeats series)
Encaustic and mixed media on panel; 20 x 16 inches (51 x 41cm)
In the proud little poem, A Coat, William Butler Yeats responds to the publication of Irish novelist George Moore’s autobiography. “Moore, a quarrelsome bachelor, an old acquaintance, and sometime collaborator laid waste to Yeat’s reputation. Moore attacked Yeats for vanity, snobbery and a squandered life. His cruelty extended to ridicule of the coat Yeats wore upon his return from America.”* Yeats announces at the end of the poem, “For there’s more enterprise in walking naked.”
* Maddox, Brenda. Yeat’s Ghosts. New York: Harper Collins, 1999.