This provided some great context for one of my favorite poetry books, The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology (1992). I never understood that the

This provided some great context for one of my favorite poetry books, The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology (1992). I never understood that the title referred to an actual profession. When I tried to look it up several years ago, all I got was an explanation that it's meaning was figurative. That's one mystery solved. Those masterful images because complete Grew in pure mind, but out of what began? A mound of refuse or the sweeping of a street, Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can, Old iron, old bones, old rags, and that raving slut Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder's gone, I must lie down where all the ladders start, In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart. - William Butler Yeats from The Circus Animals' Desertion [0] https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/162343 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/162343