Our daughter Carmel took this photo with a her own 35 mm camera one April morning im 2004 in Drumcliff Churchyard near Sligo, County Sligo, Ireland. The tombstone beside which I'm kneeling is that of Ireland's most famous writer, William Butler Yeats (1864 - 1939). Yeats was the first Irish writer to win the Nobel Prize. The short poem ("Cast a cold eye/On life on death/Horseman, pass by") is the last stanza of his famed poem "Under Ben Bulben" (1939). There are various institutes and galleries dedicated to Yeats and named for him in Sligo. Yeats, although born and raised in Dublin, spent most of the latter part of his life in Sligo, and had many relatives there then and now. An ancestor of his was the Rector of the nearby Drumcliffe Church (a beautiful, well-preserved chapel), while someone related to him is the Rector now. One day while I ate lunch on a bench in front of Stanford University, I met and chatted with Yeats' granddaughter--a beautiful young woman whose speech revealed a strong Irish accent (naturally). Yeats once was the guest of Stanford and lectured there.

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