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8/15/2019 Essay on Down by The Salley Gardens
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Essay on poetry
Down by the Salley Gardens by William Butler Yeats
1 Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
A
2 She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
A
3 She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
B
4 But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
B
5 In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
6 And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
7 She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the
weirs;
D
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8 But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
D
Down by the Salley Gardens was written by !illiam Butler "eats,
it was
first published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems in
#$$%. &he
poem is 'omposed by two stan(as divided in two 'ouplets ea'h
one; that
means, that all the poem has four 'ouplets and eight lines.
&he rhyme s'heme
is AABB DD, this poem does not have a rhythmi'al pattern
stablished, that
is to say, that it has a 'ombination of different feet in its
stru'ture. )or
instan'e, #, * and + verses presented five iambi' feet and one
anapest foot.
Additionally, lines and , there are si iambi' feet and one
spondee.
)urthermore, verse / show si iambi' and one tro'hee; $ line one
tro'hee.
)inally, line 0 is 'omposed by iambi' he ameter.
&hose variations in metre and rhythm 'ould refle't the
emotional
'hanges of the speaker in the poem. In a first stage, the
speaker shows doubt
about the love proposal of the lady 1 But I, being young and
foolish, with her
would not agree1, this line let the reader know the reason of
the doubt, for
instan'e, when you are young, you are immature and you are
afraid about the
de'ision that you take for your future, perhaps the speaker in
the first stan(a
was s'are about the feelings that he had. But then he regrets
about ignore the
advi'e that was given by the lady 1 She bid me take life easy,
as the grass
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8/15/2019 Essay on Down by The Salley Gardens
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grows on the weirs;1 in this line the lady propose to him to
liberate his tie and
to have a life free, however he does not a''ept 1But I was young
and foolish,
and now am full of tears 1 and as result of that he lost the
love of his life.
&his poem is full of symbols and imagery, the first line
1Down by the
salley gardens my love and I did meet;1 the main symbol of this
line is the
Salley that is a willow tree and a''ording to the elti'
mythology it sear'hes
in'rease the essen'e of love #. Bearing in mind this, the
speaker shows us a
'ouple that fell in love among the salley gardens, where, there
are a
representation of love and loss taken from the willow trees.
Additionally, the
images of the leaves and the river are very important in this
poem; 1 She bid
me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;1 in this line
it is possible to
see a simile where the author 'ompares love with the leaves of
the willow, that
grown without beautiful and without diffi'ulty. Also the use of
the river all
along the poem, 1In a field by the river my love and I did
stand,1 this
represents the flow of time and life, that sometimes passed very
fast and we do
not have the possibility to take advantage of the things that we
have, and them
we 2ust have the regret of having lost something.
1 Meaning of willow taking from
http://www.whats-your-sign.com/celtic-meaning-willow-tree.html
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As a 'on'lusion, we 'an see how the poem shows the foolishness
of young
people, and the opportunities that are leaving behind 2ust
be'ause you are
afraid of the 'onse3uen'es. I think that the poem is an advi'e
to en2oy life and
take advantage of everything that is given to us, be'ause at the
end all this
things always leaves us a knowledge.
