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William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939 / County Dublin / Ireland)
Poems by William Butler Yeats : 92 / 402
Down By The Salley Gardens
DOWN by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
William Butler Yeats
Submitted: Tuesday, May 15, 2001
Edited: Tuesday, May 15, 2001
Read poems about / on: snow, river, tree, love, life
Poems by William Butler Yeats : 92 / 402
Comments about this poem (Down By The Salley Gardens by William Butler Yeats )
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A very nostalgic poem about love lost...I was young and foolish and now I am full of tears...how many people's feelings are conveyed in this verse...A poem also turned beautifully into a traditional song and also into a ballad lyrically sung by A.Branduardi in his album Branduardi canta Yeats.
I just love to sing this :)
Lovely simple early poem by Yeats makes a great song lyric. Much prefer this to his later ' I am the great bard of Ireland' stuff.
This is an evergreen leaf in a world bedeviled by infidelity in love. Thanks a million times to Yeats, again and always.