by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)
Down by the Salley Gardens my love and I...
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Language: English
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 did 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.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesRetitled "Down by the Salley Gardens" with the subtitle "An old song re-sung" when republished in Poems in 1895.
Note: "salley" is an anglicized form of the Irish word "saileach", which means willow.
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), title 1: "An old song re-sung", title 2: "Down by the Salley Gardens", appears in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, first published 1889 [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]
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Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 94