Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Unwrought with golden and silver light,

the blue and the dim and 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.

W.B.Yeats     

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of Ireland's greatest poets ... William Butler  Yeats.

The poem above is one of my very favourite pieces of writing - it moves me to tears every time I read it.

We learned some of Yeats' poems at primary school and although I feel very uneducated in my knowledge of poetry, the words I learned by rote back then still have a beauty that resonates with me. The Lake Isle of Innisfree was one of those.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

W.B.Yeats

Happy Birthday WB - thank you for all the beautiful words.