poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

So is this about St. Joe fingering the Virgin Mary? That's a little sophomoric for Bill Yeats, isn't it?

I think this poem is a little insane, it is not like Wiliam to be writing this way.

I think this is brilliant. (by the way if you havn't noticed the later Yeats almost always had his tongue in his cheek.) Its just a simple, somewhat cryptic comment that, perhaps Mary just said she was a virgin. I think he was just pointing out that the world's dominate religion is largely based on the testimony of an adolescent girl that lived 2000 years ago. The 'sophmoric' tone of the poem is quite appropriate as it is about an absurdity.