He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven WB Yeats

Themes Love Dreams Descriptive imagery/language

Yeats was an Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. This poem is from the period when he wrote primarily about mythology and Irish legend. This work of Yeats explores the idea of wanting to give gifts to someone you love, but having only the greatest gift of all, your dreams, to give.

Language Although its meaning is deep, this poem is short and simple to understand.

Tone In ‘He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven’ the tone is calm and peaceful, due to the sibilants used, nasal and ‘L’ sounds which combine to create a dreamlike tone: “Silver light” “Softly” “Embroidered cloths” To help the tone flow peacefully along there are no exclamation marks, or monosyllables to interrupt the flow.  

Rhyme Yeats creates a soft rhyming melody and tune, almost like a lullaby. The natural stress in each word helps to create the rhythm, A B A B C D C D. Yeats’ use of language creates very clear visual images, eg ‘heaven’ has connotations of peace, serenity, almost a nirvana.

Sample Answer A poem that I have studied for my Junior Cert is called ‘He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven’ by W.B. Yeats. In this poem the poet wishes he could give his love one ‘heaven’s embroided cloth’. We learn that these cloths are very beautiful. He describes them as being ‘enwrought with golden and silver light’. In other words, the poet wishes that he could give something special to the girl he loves.

The poet declares that he would put this beautiful cloth under her feet: ‘I would spread the cloths under your feet’. However, we learn that the poet is unable to do this because he is poor and all he has to offer to this girl is the gift of himself and his dreams: ‘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 begs her to be careful not to trample on his dreams and break his heart.