Had I the [heavens']1 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.
Three Yeats Songs
Song Cycle by Brian Boydell (1917 - 2000)
?. The cloths of heaven  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), title 1: "Aedh wishes for the cloths of heaven", title 2: "He wishes for the cloths of heaven", appears in The Wind among the reeds, first published 1899
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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Tamás Rédey) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Original title is "Aedh wishes for the cloths of heaven"; revised 1906; re-titled "He wishes for the cloths of heaven".
Confirmed with W. B. Yeats, Later Poems, Macmillan and Co., London, 1926, page 45.
1 Gurney: "Heaven's"Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
?. Drinking song  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye; That's all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die. I lift the glass to my mouth, I look at you, and I sigh.
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "A drinking song", appears in The Green Helmet and Other Poems, first published 1910
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
?. Red Hanrahan's Song  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
The old brown thorn-trees break in two high over Cummen Strand, Under a bitter black wind that blows from the left hand; Our courage breaks like an old tree in a black wind and dies, But we have hidden in our hearts the flame out of the eyes Of Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan. The wind has bundled up the clouds high above Knocknarea, And thrown the thunder on the stones for all that Maeve can say. Angers that are like noisy clouds have set out hearts abeat; But we have all bent low and low and kissed the quiet feet Of Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan. The yellow pool has overflowed high up on Clooth-na-Bare, For the wet winds are blowing out of the clinging air; Like heavy flooded waters our bodies and our blood; But purer than a tall candle before the Holy Rood Is Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.
Text Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), "Cathleen, the Daughter of Hoolihan", from Broad Sheet (April 1903), revised same year and in 1906
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]Total word count: 252