Observations placeholder
Yeats, W B - Collected poems - The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams
Identifier
011806
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Notes: Cenél Áeda na Echtge (also Cenél Áeda, Kenloth, Kinalethes, Kenealea, Kinelea) was a ‘trícha cét’, which was the original formation of the southern part of the barony of Kiltartan, County Galway, Ireland.
A description of the experience
W B Yeats – Collected Poems
I know of the leafy paths that the witches take
Who come with their crowns of pearl and their spindles of wool
And their secret smile, out of the depths of the lake;
I know where a dim moon drifts, where the Danaan kind
Wind and unwind their dances when the light grows cool.
On the island lawns, their feet where the pale foam gleams
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind;
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams
I know of the sleepy country, where swans fly round
Coupled with golden chains and sing as they fly
A king and a queen are wandering there, and the sound
Has made them so happy and hopeless, so deaf and so blind
With wisdom, they wander till all the years have gone by
I know, and the curlew and the peewit on Echtge of streams
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind;
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams