He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven Lyrics
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
About
Written as an attempt to gain reciprocated affection from English-born Irish-revolutionary Maud Gonne, a woman for whom Yeats longed for the majority of his life – to no avail. In this poem he places romantic dreams above material possessions.
The title, with the third person pronoun “he”, but written by the poet, has a hint of irony and self-mockery. He might have been aware of the hopelessness of his love for Maud.
Despite the poem’s lack of flirtatious success with Gonne, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven stands as a favourite among Irish poetry fans, as it was voted Ireland’s second most popular poem by readers of The Irish Times, with another Yeats masterpiece, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, taking the top spot.
A notable characteristic of the poem is the repetition. The rhyme scheme is inventive in that repeated words — “cloths”, “light” “dreams” and “feet” form rhyme that isn’t truly rhyme. However, there is internal rhyme — “spread” and “tread”, “night” and “light”.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
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- He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven