Rag and Bone Man in early 20th century NYC

Those masterful images, because complete

 Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?

 A mound of refuse, of the sweepings of a street,

 Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,

 Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut

  Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder’s gone

  I must lie down where all ladders start

  In the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart.

                       —William Butler Yeats, “The Circus Animals’ Desertion”