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Essay on poetry

Down by the Salley Gardens by William Butler Yeats


1

Down

by

the

salley

gardens

my

love

and

did

meet;

A
2

She

passed

the

salley

gardens

with

little

snow-white

feet.

A
3 She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
B
4 But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
B

In

field

by

the

river

my

love

and

did

stand,

C
6 And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
C
7 She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
D

But I

was young and foolish,

and now am full

of tears.

D
Down by the Salley Gardens was written by William Butler Yeats, it was
first published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems in 1889. The
poem is composed by two stanzas divided in two couplets each one; that
means, that all the poem has four couplets and eight lines. The rhyme scheme
is AABB CCDD, this poem does not have a rhythmical pattern stablished, that
is to say, that it has a combination of different feet in its structure. For
instance, 1, 2 and 5 verses presented five iambic feet and one anapest foot.
Additionally, lines 3 and 7, there are six iambic feet and one spondee.
Furthermore, verse 4 show six iambic and one trochee; 8 line one trochee.
Finally, line 6 is composed by iambic hexameter.
Those variations in metre and rhythm could reflect the emotional
changes of the speaker in the poem. In a first stage, the speaker shows doubt
about the love proposal of the lady / But I, being young and foolish, with her
would not agree/, this line let the reader know the reason of the doubt, for
instance, when you are young, you are immature and you are afraid about the
decision that you take for your future, perhaps the speaker in the first stanza
was scare about the feelings that he had. But then he regrets about ignore the
advice that was given by the lady / She bid me take life easy, as the grass

grows on the weirs;/ in this line the lady propose to him to liberate his tie and
to have a life free, however he does not accept /But I was young and foolish,
and now am full of tears / and as result of that he lost the love of his life.
This poem is full of symbols and imagery, the first line /Down by the
salley gardens my love and I did meet;/ the main symbol of this line is the
Salley that is a willow tree and according to the Celtic mythology it searches
increase the essence of love1. Bearing in mind this, the speaker shows us a
couple that fell in love among the salley gardens, where, there are a
representation of love and loss taken from the willow trees. Additionally, the
images of the leaves and the river are very important in this poem; / She bid
me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;/ in this line it is possible to
see a simile where the author compares love with the leaves of the willow, that
grown without beautiful and without difficulty. Also the use of the river all
along the poem, /In a field by the river my love and I did stand,/ this
represents the flow of time and life, that sometimes passed very fast and we do
not have the possibility to take advantage of the things that we have, and them
we just have the regret of having lost something.

1 Meaning of willow taking from http://www.whats-your-sign.com/celticmeaning-willow-tree.html

As a conclusion, we can see how the poem shows the foolishness of young
people, and the opportunities that are leaving behind just because you are
afraid of the consequences. I think that the poem is an advice to enjoy life and
take advantage of everything that is given to us, because at the end all this
things always leaves us a knowledge.

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