Down By The Salley Gardens by William Butler Yeats.

             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.

             Down by the Salley Gardens – Analysis.

             Down by the Salley Gardens by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats is a short poem with an overall theme of love lost and the foolishness and rashness of youth. It is unusual that Yeats chose such a short poem to express so much as he did in Down by the Salley Gardens, for he could have equally chosen to write a much lengthier poem on such grave topics. However, he has chosen a repetitive and simplistic approach, which disarms the reader immediately. The reader is captured by the folk-like story telling approach and relates his/her own experiences and knowledge to the poem"s theme. .

             The overall tone of the poem is regret at having been so foolish as to lose something as precious as genuine love. It is written in a single stanza, with a rhythmic pattern of rhyming couplets. The poem is in a lyrical style as it provokes many images with each line. It has a flowing natural rhythm that rhymes at the end of each line that adds to the feeling of lyricism. In fact, this poem has been put into a musical setting by many composers, most notably Britten.

             The poem has very little special poetic language or use of devices. In fact it resembles typical conversational language. There is no evidence of simile or metaphor, personification or idiom. Within the poem, there is some simple attempt at imagery: "with little snow-white feet", "laid her snow-white hand".