Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader. I was disappointed we did not get her poetry. I thank Members for their attendance and the ambassador for being here. It being international poetry day, it would be remiss of me not to mention our most famous poet. It is not Senator Norris, but W.B. Yeats. I am informed that the ambassador has a picture of Yeats and his muse Maud Gonne on the fridge at home. At least they got together on the ambassador's fridge, though not in real life. It is lucky for us they did not, or we would not have such poetry. If it was not for the fact W.B. Yeats kept getting rejected, I do not think he would have written all that torturously sad poetry we are familiar with. He described her beauty as "beauty like a tightened bow" in "No Second Troy". We all know "Easter 1916", where he spoke about:

MacDonagh and MacBride

[...]Connolly and Pearce,

[...]

Wherever green is worn,

[All] changed, changed utterly:

A terrible beauty is born.

On international poetry day, we recognise the great contribution of our greatest poet in the Senate 100 years ago, as well as to poetry.