While there might not be a specific historic Irish poem titled “Valentine’s Day Poem,” many Irish poets have written beautifully about love. One of Ireland’s most famous poets, W.B. Yeats, penned numerous poems on the subject. Here’s one of his most beloved poems that captures the essence of love and could beautifully serve as a Valentine’s message:
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
by W.B. 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.
This poem, with its themes of love, sacrifice, and giving one’s all, embodies a deep and tender love that can be particularly resonant on Valentine’s Day. Yeats’s words remind us of the preciousness of offering one’s dreams and love to another, inviting a gentle and respectful reciprocation.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven: meaning and analysis
This eight-line poem first appeared in Yeats’s 1899 collection The Wind Among the Reeds, under the title ‘Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’. Aedh was one of several invented personas Yeats used in that book, and the name was later dropped. It is usually read as another poem for Maud Gonne.
What it means
The speaker says that if he had the heavens’ embroidered cloths, woven with golden and silver light, he would spread them under her feet. But he is poor, and all he has are his dreams. So he has spread those instead, and he asks her to tread softly, because she treads on his dreams.
It is a poem about how exposed you are when you offer someone your love. That is why the last line has become one of the most quoted in all of Irish poetry, used at weddings, on cards and in films.
Form
Instead of rhyme, Yeats repeats the same words at the ends of lines: cloths, light, feet and dreams. The repetition makes the poem feel like a careful, almost hesitant offering, and it lands the emphasis firmly on ‘dreams’.
Key themes
- Love and vulnerability
- Poverty and riches
- Dreams and imagination
More Irish poems
- Ireland’s top 100 Irish poems
- Easter, 1916 by W. B. Yeats
- Sailing to Byzantium by W. B. Yeats
- Irish quotes
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