POEM OF THE DAY

TWO short but highly evocative poems by the Irish W B Yeats; the first a rural idyll, the second a love story with an implicitly tragic outcome. Down by the Sally Gardens was set beautifully for piano and voice by Benjamin Britten and Ivor Gurney.

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 honeybee,

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 mourning 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.

DOWN BY THE SALLY GARDENS

Down by the sally gardens my love and I did meet;

She passed the sally gardens with little snow-white feet.

She bid me take life 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. sally= willow