"Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven", also known as "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" in later publications, is a poem by William Butler Yeats. It was published in 1899 in his third volume of poetry, The Wind Among the Reeds.
Commentary
The speaker of the poem is the character Aedh, who appears in Yeats's work alongside two other archetypal characters of the poet's myth: Michael Robartes and Red Hanrahan. The three characters, according to Yeats, represent the "principles of the mind;" whereas Robartes is intellectually powerful and Hanrahan represents Romantic primitivism, Aedh is pale, lovelorn, and in the thrall of La belle dame sans merci.[1]
Text
Had I the heavens' 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.
Cultural influence
Landmark
There is a blue plaque dedicated to Yeats at Balscadden House in Howth near Dublin, which was his cottage home from 1880 to 1883. The plaque contains the last couplet from the poem.[2]
