J.M. MEYER, PH.D.
  • Bio
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Research
    • Orde Wingate
    • Anthropology of Organized Violence
    • Special Forces in 20th and 21st Centuries
    • Internal Competition in Great Powers Conflict
    • Thinkery & Verse >
      • Press Coverage
      • Projects >
        • Westhusing in the House of Atreus
        • American Volunteers
        • The Priceless Slave
        • Cryptomnesia
        • Veterans' Voices
        • Thinkery and Verse
  • Contact

William butler yeats

10/22/2013

0 Comments

 
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.                                                    

                     W.B. Yeats (1865–1939)
                   "He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven"

This is one of my favorite Yeats' poems. He came to mind the other day while watching Harold Pinter's Betrayal, the film version with Jeremy Irons and Ben Kingsley. 

Irons and Kingsley play, respectively, a book agent and a book publisher. They reminisce about conversations concerning Yeats, but never actually manage to say anything meaningful about him, or his poetry. They merely decorate their lives with Yeats' name. The authors they publish, on the other hand, publish vain and literate autobiographical novels that sadden the two friends--they know they have not discovered a Yeats, just a few lads that can sell a book or two. The two friends have sold many, many books and they have read many more, but they sense they will not find a Yeats. Instead of finding a Yeats--or even earnestly searching for one, the two friends struggle half-hardheartedly over the love of a woman (Patricia Hodge). All three cast stones at one another--they wanted fire, but all they found were sparks. They live entrapped in bourgeois comforts and predictability. 

Well, anyhow. They never did say anything about Yeats. I suppose I might as well. "I have spread my dreams under your feet; / Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." The speaker has confessed his poverty--he also suffers from a poverty of words. All the rhymes depend upon pure repetition of entire words, rather than merely repeating sounds. Cloths, light, cloths, light; feet dreams, feet, dreams. He lays these few words before us--tread softly.
0 Comments

    Author

    J. M. Meyer is a playwright and social scientist studying at the University of Texas at Austin.

    Photo Credit: ISS Expidition 7.

    Archives

    December 2019
    October 2019
    July 2018
    May 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Article Review
    Art Sighting
    Biography
    Book Review
    British Empire
    Churchill
    David Stirling
    Dudley Clarke
    Education
    Film Review
    Gandhi
    Harold Pinter
    Hermione Lee
    Hermione Lee
    Humanities
    India
    Jawaharlal Nehru
    Jinnah
    Johnny Meyer
    Justice
    Middle East
    Military History
    Orde Wingate
    Orde Wingate
    Plutarch
    Psychology
    Relationships
    Robert Graves
    Second World War
    Strategy
    Tactics
    T. E. Lawrence
    Theater Essay
    Theatre
    Verse
    W. B. Yeats
    Werner Herzog
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.