Tread softly

    One of this week's new arrivals is Sue Eckstein's novel The Cloths of Heaven. I shall give it a proper introduction later, but for now it provides an excuse for a poem as its title is from W. B. Yeats' He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven:

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 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.

                     ~~~~~~~~

(The picture is not of Yeats' Ireland but the island of Lewis).

Comments

[Harriet]

One of my favorite poems. Look forward to hearing about the book.

[Nan]

Oh, the beautiful words of Yeats. Thank you.

[catharina]

I had read the line 'tread softly...' before but never the poem as a whole. Beautiful!

[Margaret Powling]

Yes, one of my favourite poems, too ... it was read, oh so beautifully, by Anthony Hopkins in 84 Charing Cross Road (he was playing the part of Frank Doel to Anne Bancroft's Helene Hanff.)

[Julie Fredericksen]

I love this poem. I wrote a post about Yeats last March on my regular (not book) blog, Celtic Lady, and printed "Cloths of Heaven" and other poems of his. Here's the link:

http://celticanamcara.blogspot.com/2009/03/tread-softly-because-you-tread-on-my.html

[henrietta]

Wonderful picture, and a beautiful poem. Do you know this song setting?
http://open.spotify.com/track/6QgdA8jriGnt7EsYarLuv0

[Michael Faulkner]

Wonderful, thank-you. My father's best friend at school (in the mid-1930s) was WB's son Michael, and Da used to tell the story of the evening in the Yeats household when WB recited The Lake Isle of Innisfree after dinner!

[Cornflower]

Wonderful!

[Julie Fredericksen]

Michael - How wonderful for your father to hear those words from the lips of that great man himself. Thanks for your e-mail to me expanding upon your dad's relationship with the younger Yeats. I only learned who my biological father was about 5 years ago - and consequently that I am part Irish - so I am trying to absorb all this Irish mythology and history.

[Cornflower]

Thankyou, Henrietta. I couldn't manage to open your link, but for anyone else who has difficulty, I've found another source: http://www.last.fm/music/Ian%2BBostridge%252FJulius%2BDrake/_/The+Cloths+Of+Heaven

[Cornflower]

Julie, I've enjoyed reading your selection. Many thanks.

[Cornflower]

I saw that film ages ago, Margaret, but I may just have to get the DVD now!