V13 N. 93 Not Straying from the Literary Path, W. B. Yeats is Misquoted on Marathon Medal

 September 12, 2023

 Yeats,  Shakespeare, Mad Magazine?  Who says our blog will not make you a better conversationalist while you are rehydrating during a marathon race?   The Guardian today had this interesting bit on a medal with a misquote for an upcoming marathon in Ireland.  Still it's a nice quote no matter who wrote it.         written by Ella Creamer.     ed.  

‘Only the great writers are misquoted’: Dublin marathon medal has wrong Yeats quote

‘There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t met yet’ is engraved beneath an image of the Nobel-winning Irish poet. Only he didn’t write it

Ella Creamer

Tue 12 Sep 2023 12.46 BST

Participants in next month’s Dublin marathon are due to receive a medal engraved with a quote attributed to WB Yeats, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Irish poet receiving the Nobel prize in literature. However, there is no record of the quote in question having been written by Yeats.

“There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t met yet” is written along the bottom of the medals, below a portrait of the poet. However, there is “no evidence of any kind” that Yeats wrote those words “either in his numerous articles, essays or book reviews, or in his almost 400 poems and 23 plays”, Yeats Society Sligo director Susan O’Keeffe told the Guardian.

Event organisers said they “noted that while this quote is widely attributed to Yeats it has never definitively been proven to be his quote”, but that the quote nevertheless “reflects the values of the Dublin marathon”, which is known as “the friendly marathon”. The race will be held on Sunday 29 October and has a capacity of 22,500 entries.

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O’Keeffe said that the Yeats Society understands that the decision to feature the quote was made “in good faith” and that she is “really delighted” that the “national poet will be shared with over 20,000 people doing something they’re passionate about”.

“I understand exactly why the attribution was made,” said O’Keeffe. “It’s been made by so many people before this, along with several other quotes. It’s a sign of Yeats’s global importance – only the great writers, songwriters, poets, philosophers are misquoted”.

“We must always remember that not every word he wrote, or indeed word he said, was recorded,” she added. “And some records have, of course, been lost, during his lifetime or afterwards. But, as we are here in 2023, there is no evidence for what indeed is the perfect quote for a marathon where strangers do indeed make friends”.

O’Keeffe suggested that the organisers could have used an alternative quote, such as “Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams” from the poem He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven. “It would have made people smile.”

Yeats, known for his poems such as The Second Coming, Adam’s Curse and Sailing to Byzantium, is considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. He played a key part in the Irish literary revival movement and received the Nobel prize in 1923, becoming the first Irish person to win the award. He later served two terms as a senator of the Irish Free State.

  The following came to us from Dr. John Telford,  Detroit, MI

'The Great Gray Ghost'

Hannibal and Balthazar

Cast him stardust from a star.

He was famed from near and far--

*Northwestern High School's Henry Carr.

- JT

*Detroit NWHS's colors are red and gray

Henry won the Olympic 200 in 1964 as a student at Arizona State.

And the following from a former world class 800 runner who wishes to remain anonymous.  

Henry the 5^th Act 4 scene 1

"It's good for men (and women) to love the hardship they suffer because they see other people suffering.   It eases the mind.   And when the mind is strengthened, the formerly dead body breaks out of its sleepy grave and moves again, casting off tiredness and gaining new energy."

Taken from the new translation of Shakespeare's original words, plus I added

" and women" to be politically correct these days.

Of course unfortunately I never got this message completely as my mind wasn't eased and I couldn't cast off tiredness or gain new energy down the home stretch very often.

George,  

What if Kipling had been born 35 yrs later, would he have written, “If you can fill the unforgiving 440 yds with 60 seconds of distance run, times four, you might break 4:00, and then you’ll be The Man my son.”

Coach W.S. Benson