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.
Anthony Hopkins reading He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven notes and analysis
W B Yeats
All images copyright Ireland Calling
Beautiful Celtic phone cases available
Did you know?
People with Irish roots have a great opportunity to start searching their family history for free thanks to ancestry.ie who have made more than ten million records available online. The family tree website has published Catholic Parish Registers dating from 1655 all the way up to 1915. Find out more.Have you heard about…
Great fun - A bride and groom treated their guests to a session of traditional Irish dancing for their first dance as a marriage couple during their wedding reception. Check out the video here.What about this…
‘If weather forecasters were more honest’ - a hilarious video imagines what Irish weather forecast would sound like if the presenter was a bit less cheerful and a bit more honest. Find out more.
