The poem
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.
Does anyone know where The Salley Gardens are? I have always wondered if it would help me to understand the poem.
i think this is a very simple and yet beautiful warning that is not be taken lightly. One doesn't need to know where the Sally Gardens are to understand the poem. The poem is about love, life, and relationships. The women is warning the man to be wear, don't be to hasty in seeking love. In modern English what she is saying is that attraction is often mistaken for love take your time don't rush it or you will get hurt. That precisely is what happened to the man in the end of the poem, he was dumped because he was to hasty. This poem is a warning to the wise, let love takes its course in its own sweet time.
The location of Salley Gardens is not relevant. It's just the place where he fell in love and where his heart was broken.
I think Yeats is brilliant : as he describes the "love interest" warns you about her shallowness (pretty, but cold and ephemeral like snow).
But he was blinded by love and could not see behind the beauty.
I can't remember where I found this information but I understand the Salley Gardens are in Dublin. Salley is the Irish version of the Latin word for willow tree Salix. So the gardens where in fact full of willow trees. I got that last bit of information from the only other woman I've met with Salley as a first name and she's the author Salley Vickers and she writes good books. I can recommend Miss Garnett's Angel
This is a very beautiful poem. It has so much to it. While I don't believe the location of the salley garden is important, I think knowing what a salley garden is. It is a weeping willow. It is life, and it appears to be weeping. It is a tree that on the outside looks full of life, yet it is very empty on the inside. This whole poem is of sadness and gloom. The tree is a metaphor of his emotions. Just wanted to put my thoughts into my all-time favorite poem.
The salley garden could be anywhere. A salley is a willow tree. It was common to have such trees in ones' garden in IUreland because the willows were used for basket-making material and to thatch cottage roofs. The Gaelic for willow is "saileach" which comes from the Latin, "sailix" for "willow". The bark of the willow contains "salicylic acid from which aspirin is made and the bark was used as am analgesic since…
Read the whole commentThe salley garden could be anywhere. A salley is a willow tree. It was common to have such trees in ones' garden in IUreland because the willows were used for basket-making material and to thatch cottage roofs. The Gaelic for willow is "saileach" which comes from the Latin, "sailix" for "willow". The bark of the willow contains "salicylic acid from which aspirin is made and the bark was used as am analgesic since ancient times. Thus, the salley gardens act as a place to ease the pain first felt in that very same place. Love is a burdensome nourishment. It is delicate, take it lighly and it is gone. Take it too heavy too fast and it is gone. As an accomplished operatic and lyric tenor (I typically perform free for uplifting events and venues), I never fail to leave at least some audience members in tears with this piece. -- KIm Cooney, Bellevue, WA [phone removed]
i live beside the salley gardens,in ballisodare county sligo,where yeats is from.so it does matter where they are.but the salley gardens are now all cement.
I quite like Yeats, Wilde and other Irish authors and poets. The Celtic culture is always full of beautiful mystery. I wish I could go there one day, no matter how the Salley Gardens look like now!
NOW MATTER WHERE THE WEIRS ARE OR WHERE THE TREES ARE THE IMAGE FITS WELL WITH THE IDEA OF THE POEM,AS A SONG IT WORKS VERY WELL. PS THERE IS A FIND HANDBALL ALLEY IN BALISODARE BUT W.B. WAS HARDLY LAMENTING HIS LOSS THERE
In a eight-verse poem, Yeats succeeds in telling the birth and blossoming of love and its brutal termination.
The Salley Gardens appears as the craddle of love, for that is where the narrator and his love interest meet. The love described here is transcient and so very brief because of the youth of the young man who seems unable to handle the 'carpe diem' quality ofthis relationship. As he said,'being young and foolish' he doesn't have what it takes to make this relationship lasts and he ends up with a broken heart. Yeats' s genius resides in his capacity to deal with really profound subjects in a short form.