Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Last updated

Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
by William Butler Yeats
First published in1899
LanguageEnglish
Full text
Wikisource-logo.svg He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven at Wikisource

"Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven", also known as "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" in later publications, is a poem by William Butler Yeats. It was published in 1899 in his third volume of poetry, The Wind Among the Reeds.

Contents

Commentary

The speaker of the poem is the character Aedh, who appears in Yeats's work alongside two other archetypal characters of the poet's myth: Michael Robartes and Red Hanrahan. The three characters, according to Yeats, represent the "principles of the mind;" whereas Robartes is intellectually powerful and Hanrahan represents Romantic primitivism, Aedh is pale, lovelorn, and in the thrall of La belle dame sans merci . [1]

Text

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
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.

Cultural influence

Landmark

There is a blue plaque dedicated to Yeats at Balscadden House in Howth near Dublin, which was his cottage home from 1880 to 1883. The plaque contains the last couplet from the poem. [2]

Art and Literature

The poem appears as a recurrent metaphor in the relationship between a father and son in William Nicholson's novel The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life (2009). Furthermore, the poem is quoted in Chris Killip's photographic book In Flagrante (1988) and John Irving's A Widow for One Year (1998).

Music

The poem has been set to music by many composers and musical groups, including Thomas Dunhill (1904), John Tavener (1983), Z. Randall Stroope (1984), Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin (1991), Virginia Astley (1996), Claire Roche (1998), Richard B. Evans (1999), Howard Skempton (2004), North Sea Radio Orchestra (2006), Tosca (2009), Alan Bullard (2010), and Tiny Ruins and Hamish Kilgour (2015).

Film and Television

The poem is featured in the films 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), Equilibrium (2002), Dasepo Naughty Girls (2006), as well as in the Ballykissangel episode "Amongst Friends" (1998).

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. B. Yeats</span> Irish poet and playwright (1865–1939)

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist and writer, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, and later served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State.

The Wanderings of Oisin is an epic poem published by William Butler Yeats in 1889 in the book The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems. It was his first publication outside magazines, and immediately won him a reputation as a significant poet. This narrative poem takes the form of a dialogue between the aged Irish hero Oisín and St. Patrick, the man traditionally responsible for converting Ireland to Christianity. Most of the poem is spoken by Oisin, relating his 300-year sojourn in the isles of Faerie. The poem was not popular among modernist critics like T. S. Eliot. However, Harold Bloom defended this poem in his book-length study of Yeats, and concludes that it deserves reconsideration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howth</span> Peninsular suburb of Dublin

Howth is an affluent peninsular village and outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The district as a whole occupies the greater part of the peninsula of Howth Head, which forms the northern boundary of Dublin Bay, and includes the island of Ireland's Eye, which holds multiple natural protection designations.

<i>In the Seven Woods</i>

In the Seven Woods: Being Poems Chiefly of the Irish Heroic Age is a volume of poems by W. B. Yeats, published in 1903 by Elizabeth Yeats's Dun Emer Press, the first edited by this publishing house.

<i>The Wild Swans at Coole</i> Poetry collections by William Butler Yeats

The Wild Swans at Coole is the name of two collections of poetry by W. B. Yeats, published in 1917 and 1919.

— Wilfred Owen, concluding lines of "Dulce et Decorum est", written 1917, published posthumously this year

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Easter, 1916</span> 1916 poem by W. B. Yeats

Easter, 1916 is a poem by W. B. Yeats describing the poet's torn emotions regarding the events of the Easter Rising staged in Ireland against British rule on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916. The rebellion was unsuccessful, and most of the Irish republican leaders involved were executed. The poem was written between May and September 1916, printed privately, 25 copies, and appeared in magazines in 1920 but first published in 1920 in the collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Prayer for My Daughter</span> Poem by William Butler Yeats

"A Prayer for My Daughter" is a poem by William Butler Yeats written in 1919 and published in 1921 as part of Yeats' collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer. It is written to Anne, his daughter with Georgie Hyde-Lees, whom Yeats married after his last marriage proposal to Maud Gonne was rejected in 1916. Yeats composed the poem while staying in a tower at Thoor Ballylee during the Anglo-Irish War, two days after Anne's birth on 26 February 1919. The poem reflects Yeats's complicated views on Irish Nationalism, sexuality, and is considered an important work of Modernist poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics (poem)</span> 1938 poem by William Butler Yeats

"Politics" is a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeats written on May 24, 1938. It was composed during the time of the Spanish Civil War as well as during the pre-war period of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich in Germany. The poem hints at the political situations of "Rome" (Italy), "Russia", and Spain, but ultimately discusses topics more relevant to private human interaction rather than public, or political situations. The poem never mentions Germany or Hitler, despite the fact that the "war and war's alarms" surrounding the poem's creation arose from fears of Germany's aggression rather than Italy's, Russia's, or Spain's. Many versions of the text exist: the original typescript of May 1938, the first typescript with hand-written corrections dated August 12, 1938, as well as a final "Coole Edition" of the poem dated June 29, 1939, which was not published until it was included in Last Poems in 1939. Yeats intended for the poem to be printed last in the collection, as an envoi to "The Circus Animals' Desertion", and while a debate as to the true order of the poems has continued since 1939, "Politics" was the last lyric poem Yeats wrote and remains the final work printed in all posthumous editions.

"An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" is a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), written in 1918 and first published in the Macmillan edition of The Wild Swans at Coole in 1919. The poem is a soliloquy given by an aviator in the First World War in which the narrator describes the circumstances surrounding his imminent death. The poem is a work that discusses the role of Irish soldiers fighting for the United Kingdom during a time when they were trying to establish independence for Ireland. Wishing to show restraint from publishing political poems during the height of the war, Yeats withheld publication of the poem until after the conflict had ended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1899 in poetry</span> Overview of the events of 1899 in poetry

— Opening lines of Rudyard Kipling's White Man's Burden, first published this year

Ego Dominus Tuus, Latin for "I am your lord", sometimes translated as "I am your master", is a poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. It was published in the 1918 book Per Amica Silentia Lunae, where it introduced some of Yeats's essays, and collected with other poems in The Wild Swans at Coole (1919). The title is taken from Dante's La Vita Nuova: the words "ego dominus tuus" are spoken to Dante in a dream by the personification of Love. The two characters of the poem, Hic and Ille, are Latin words meaning this man and that man, respectively. Ezra Pound identified Ille with 'Willie', or Yeats: the poem covers many characteristic themes of Yeats, in particular the image of the mask and the concept of the double or "anti-self". The dialogue of Hic and Ille treats the poetry of Dante, John Keats, and Yeats himself, contrasting the words of each poet with the experience of their lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Wild Swans at Coole (poem)</span> Poem by W. B. Yeats

"The Wild Swans at Coole" is a lyric poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939). Written between 1916 and early 1917, the poem was first published in the June 1917 issue of the Little Review, and became the title poem in the Yeats's 1917 and 1919 collections The Wild Swans at Coole.

This is a list of all works by Irish poet and dramatist W. B. Yeats (1865–1939), winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature and a major figure in 20th-century literature. Works sometimes appear twice if parts of new editions or significantly revised. Posthumous editions are also included if they are the first publication of a new or significantly revised work. Years are linked to corresponding "year in poetry" articles for works of poetry, and "year in literature" articles for other works.

Tread softly or tread-softly may refer to:

Owen Red Hanrahan is a fictional character who appears in several works by William Butler Yeats.

"The Song of Wandering Aengus" is a poem by Irish poet W. B. Yeats. It was first printed in 1897 in British magazine The Sketch under the title "A Mad Song." It was then published under its standard name in Yeats' 1899 anthology The Wind Among the Reeds. It is especially remembered for its two final lines: "The silver apples of the moon,/ The golden apples of the sun."

Tread softly is a composition for orchestra by the American composer Nina C. Young. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic as the first part of their "Project 19," an initiative commissioning new works by 19 female composers in honor of the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was first performed by the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Jaap van Zweden at David Geffen Hall on February 5, 2020.

References

  1. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty (December 1968), "'Principles of the Mind': Continuity in Yeats's Poetry". Comparative Literature83 (6): 882-889
  2. "Take on Nature: The poet, the rock and the Rocker at Howth Head". Irish News.