Oil and Blood
Oil and Blood - meaning Summary
Miracles and Corruptions Contrasted
Yeats contrasts outward sanctity and hidden corruption. He shows ornate tombs of saints exuding miraculous oil and sweet scent, while beneath the surface lie vampires whose shrouds are soaked with blood. The poem sets sacred appearance against gruesome reality, suggesting religious or social hypocrisy and the coexistence of reverence and violence. Its stark images compress a moral disjunction between what is venerated and what is concealed.
Read Complete AnalysesIn tombs of gold and lapis lazuli Bodies of holy men and women exude Miraculous oil, odour of violet. But under heavy loads of trampled clay Lie bodies of the vampires full of blood; Their shrouds are bloody and their lips are wet.
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