Aedh Wishes For The Clothes Of Heaven
by William Butler Yeats
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.
I heard this peom in a recent movie I saw and really enjoyed it. Thought I should share it...does anyone know who Aedh is? All I could find in my limited search is some Saint.
3 Comments:
I'm not sure, but it might have been the woman that he was in love with for most of his life that never returned his love. (I forget her name.) When asked later if she felt bad she didn't return his love, she said no, because if she had, the world would be without so much of his brilliant poetry.
(But it could be someone totally different...)
See, I did read it. I like it.
Aedh (fire).Irish. A son of Ler (god of sea). He is a Lord of fire, and may thus be considered as a male aspect of the Brigit
(Brigit (exalted one).Irish and British. A triplicity of Goddesses associated with Fire and smithcraft, with poetry, and with motherhood and childbirth. In pre-Roman Britain, she was the tutelary Goddess of the Brigantes tribe, and like so many Celtic Goddesses, she has some riverine associations. She was conflated into Christian mythology as Saint Brigit.)
He is one of the children of Ler transformed into a swan by a wicked stepmother. He and his
sibling, Finnguala, are transformed into swans who can speak and sing by a jealous and spiteful stepmother, Aife. They spend many centuries in this form, and are eventually brought into the household of a Christian missionary, who binds them together with a silver chain. A Queen of Ireland hears of the remarkable birds and, coveting them, attempts to seize them. In the ensuing struggle, the chain breaks, and they become pillars of dust, representing human bodies many centuries old.
At least that's what I found
Post a Comment
<< Home