Before me floats an image, man or shade, Shade more than man, more image than a shade; For Hades' bobbin bound in mummy-cloth May unwind the winding path; A mouth that has no moisture and no breath Breathless mouths may summon;(" Byzantium")

W.b. Yeats
About This Quote

While the word “mummy” evokes images of desert-dwelling mummies, these words are not referring to the dead. Rather, they are referring to the Egyptian god of the underworld. He is often represented as a dead body wrapped in bandages. This image suggests that there is life within death, which is what the phrase means.

Source: The Collected Poems Of W.b. Yeats

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