Love
Down by the Salley Gardens
From The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889)
Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
Codex Note
Two stanzas of regret, based on a few lines that Yeats heard an old woman sing: the speaker was young and foolish, and did not take love easy as the grass grows on the weirs.
Cite this poem
MLA
Yeats, W. B. “Down by the Salley Gardens.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/8/.
Chicago
Yeats, W. B. “Down by the Salley Gardens.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/8/.
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