He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven was voted Ireland’s second most popular poem in a poll of Irish Times’ readers. The most popular was another Yeats’ classic, The Lake Isle of Innisfree.
Notes and analysis
Ireland’s 100 favourite poems
W B Yeats
The poem is most famous for the memorable line, “tread softly because you tread on my dreams,” which is one of most quoted phrases from Yeats.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
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.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven video
Listen to the poem being read and discover more about its meaning and background in this video.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven notes and analysis
W B Yeats
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