"Down by the Salley Gardens" by W.B. Yeats (poetry)

A salley is a weeping willow. No doubt there were once Salley Gardens in Sligo, at the time Yeats recalls in this poem.

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• salley
• gardens
• Yeats
• poem

[SpokenVerse]

@deathandnightingales Thanks for your concern but be assured that I'm in good spirits.

It's not a cheery poem. He's regretting his foolishness and impetuosity that caused him to lose the woman he loves, leaving him "full of tears". I try to read the poem as it sounds inside my head - as best I can - I don't have any other choice.

If you think it should be read more cheerily, then post your own version.

[MrHeslopian]

I've never been fond of Yeats. I find this and many of his other poems too neat, too cute. Nicely constructed but essentially revolving around a simple wisdom made to seem deeper than it is through the elegance of its design. It's all frosting and no cake. In my opinion anyway.

[vickiehill1]

I love this poem. So simple & so beautiful. We Irish...all fire & melancholy...& I wouldn't change it for the world. :)

[biquettesauvage1]

It is not similar, it's identical. Yeats loved it so much that he put it at the beginning of his poems collected

[suppernoddypo2k7]

This poem and the rhyme of this poem was inspired by a similar folk rhyme found in the south west of Ireland in Wexford and Wicklow and Waterford. The original words are similar and the rhyme is the same.

[Omar1487]

Beautiful

[firebug47]

@Ahavati1

Dickinson--what an appropriate and acerbic comment. I didn't know this one! Thank you for posting it.

[keanghiero]

Super

5*

All the best

Kean

[Dou8me]

William is my true love!*__*

[DevaRupa]

My god he looks so sexy - I don't think I'd have put him off!