William Butler Yeats and Loreena McKennitt: "Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild"

In 1923, Irish poet-playwright William Butler Yeats (June 13, 1865-January 28, 1939) became the first Irish person (Irish: Muintir na hÉireann) to be awarded the Nobel Prize. William had been nominated for the prize six times previously: 1902, 1914, 1915, 1918, 1921, 1922. In selecting William in 1923, the Nobel Committee for Literature commended his “always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.”

Although The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, his first book of poetry, was published in 1889, William initially devoted his prodigious talent with words to writing plays and serving as the chief playwright for the Irish National Theatre Society, which was formed in 1904 in Dublin by William, Isabella Augusta Persse, Lady Gregory (March 15, 1852-May 22, 1932), and six other founders.

William and his literary and theatrical companions realized that the successful revival of traditional Irish literature and poetry, with their rich Celtic influences, hinged on creating “a theatre of our own” that would attract “the great mass of our people” who “accustomed to interminable political speeches, read little.” The earnest group understood that they had to create the firm groundwork for a distinctly Irish theatre:

“The theatres of Dublin had nothing about them that we could call our own. They were empty buildings hired by the English travelling companies and we wanted Irish plays and Irish players. When we thought of these plays we thought of everything that was romantic and poetical, for the nationalism we had called up --- like that every generation had called up in moments of discouragement --- was romantic and poetical.” (W.B. Yeats, “Nobel Lecture,” December 15, 1923)

The venue for the Irish National Theatre Society's plays was located on Lower Abbey Street in the recently available Hibernian Theatre of Varieties (now the famed Abbey Theatre [Irish: Amharclann na Mainistreach]).

William’s early plays were often inspired by Ireland’s fascinatingly rich history and folklore: “The Countess Cathleen” (1892), “The Land of Heart’s Desire” (1894), “Cathleen Ní Houlihan” (1902), “Deirdre” (1907), “The King’s Threshold” (1904). Always exploring and extending boundaries, William subsequently applied Greek and Japanese theatrical models to later plays, the themes of which continued to be drawn from Ireland’s infinite repository of heroic and other-worldly legends.

Indeed, the Nobel Prize was awarded to William largely on the basis of his dramatic repertoire, whereas William’s subsequent worldwide recognition has largely stemmed from his vast poetic output, much of which was written after receiving the Nobel Prize. Thus, the breadth of William’s uniqueness is further solidified by his being “one of the few writers whose greatest works were written after the award of the Nobel Prize” (“William Butler Yeats – Biography,” Nobelprize.org)

Three of William Butler Yeat’s poems have been movingly set to music by Canada’s multi-instrumentalist singer-composer, Loreena McKennitt (born February 17, 1957): “Down by the Salley Gardens,” “The Stolen Child,” and “The Two Trees.”

William Butler Yeats: The Poems

“Down by the Salley Gardens” (Irish: Gort na Saileán) was one of seventeen poems that appeared in William's first poetry collection, The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, published in 1889.

“The Stolen Child” was first published in the December 1886 issue of the Irish Monthly. The poem subsequently was included in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889).

“The Two Trees” first appeared in William’s second publication, The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics (1892).

Loreena McKennitt: The Music

“Down by the Sally Gardens” was featured on Loreena’s ninth album, The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2010).

“The Stolen Child” was featured on Loreena’s first album, Elemental (1985).

“The Two Trees” was featured on Loreena’s fifth album, The Mask and Mirror (1994).

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.

William footnoted "Down by the Salley Gardens" with this explanation:

“This is an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballysodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself.”

Renowned Irish traditional music authority Hugh Edwin Shields (September 8, 1929-July 16, 2008) traced the old song to an Anglo-Irish ballad,“The Rambling Boys of Pleasure, ” of which several versions exist (H.E. Shields, “Yeats and the ‘Salley Gardens’”).

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Salley, or sally, is derived from “sallow” (Old English: sealh), a broad-leaf species of willow, in the genus Salix. The Irish word for willow is saileach.

“The Stolen Child” pertains to the belief that a missing child has been secreted safely away by Ireland’s ever-present fairies (Irish: aes sídhe, “people of the mounds”).

In a letter dated March 14, 1888, to Irish novelist-poet Katharine Tynan (January 23, 1861-April 2, 1931), William observed:

“I have noticed some things about my poetry, I did not know before, in this process of correction, for instance that it is almost all a flight into fairy land, from the real world, and a summons to that flight. The chorus to the ‘stollen [sic] child’ sums it up --- That it is not the poetry of insight and knowledge but of longing and complaint --- the cry of the heart against necessity. I hope some day to alter that and write poetry of insight and knowledge” (pp. 54-55, “Collected Letters of W.B. Yeats,” Volume I: 1865-1895)

“Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake”: Sprawling along the south shore of Lough Gill (Irish: Loch Gile, “lake of brightness”) in County Sligo (Irish: Contae Shligigh), Sleuth Wood is on the R287 between Sligo (Irish: Sligeach, “place of the shells”) and Dromahair (Irish: Droim Dhá Thiar, “ridge of two demons”) in County Leitrim (Irish: Contae Liatroma). Locally known as Slish Wood, the anglicized word Sleuth is derived from Irish sliu, “slope.”
In William’s short story, “The Heart of the Spring,” Sleuth Wood shore on Lough Gill appears

“. . .as though cut out of green beryl, and the waters that mirrored them shone like pale opal.” (p. 175, Mythologies)

“a leafy island where flapping herons wake the drowsy water-rats”: The leafy island is the uninhabited island of Innisfree (Irish: Inis Fraoigh, “heather island”) near the southern shore of Lough Gill and has a long association with fairies in Irish folklore.

“far off by furthest Rosses”: Rosses Point (Irish: An Ros) refers to a village as well as to its surrounding peninsula northwest of Sligo on Ireland’s west coast.

In his essay, “Drumcliff and Rosses,” William noted:

“At the northern corner of Rosses is a little promontory of sand and rocks and grass: a mournful, haunted place. Few country men would fall asleep under its low cliff, for he who sleeps here may wake ‘silly,’ the Sidhe having carried off his soul.” (p. 88, Mythologies)

[NOTE: The Sidhe refers to fairies (aes sídhe, “people of the mounds”).]

“From the hills above Glen-Car”: Glen-Car (Irish: Gleann an Chairthe, “Glen of the Standing Stone”) refers to a glen, its lake, and a waterfall on the borders of County Leitrim and County Sligo. A number of stunning waterfalls form on Ben Bulben (Irish: Binn Ghulban, “Gulban’s Peak”), Sligo’s flat-topped limestone mountain, and shimmer into the lake. In his poem “Towards Break of Day,” William reminisced about Glen-Car Waterfall:

“I thought: ‘There is a waterfall

Upon Ben Bulben side

That all my childhood counted dear;

Were I to travel far and wide

I could not find a thing so dear.’”

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart,
The holy tree is growing there;
From joy the holy branches start,
And all the trembling flowers they bear.
The changing colours of its fruit
Have dowered the stars with metry light;
The surety of its hidden root
Has planted quiet in the night;
The shaking of its leafy head
Has given the waves their melody,
And made my lips and music wed,
Murmuring a wizard song for thee.
There the Joves a circle go,
The flaming circle of our days,
Gyring, spiring to and fro
In those great ignorant leafy ways;
Remembering all that shaken hair
And how the winged sandals dart,
Thine eyes grow full of tender care:

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.
Gaze no more in the bitter glass
The demons, with their subtle guile.
Lift up before us when they pass,
Or only gaze a little while;
For there a fatal image grows
That the stormy night receives,
Roots half hidden under snows,
Broken boughs and blackened leaves.
For ill things turn to barrenness
In the dim glass the demons hold,
The glass of outer weariness,
Made when God slept in times of old.
There, through the broken branches, go
The ravens of unresting thought;
Flying, crying, to and fro,
Cruel claw and hungry throat,
Or else they stand and sniff the wind,
And shake their ragged wings; alas!
Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:
Gaze no more in the bitter glass.

This poem contrasts the joyful, tender holiness that exists within us --- where “The holy tree is growing there” --- with the bitter unkindness that ensues from focusing on transient externalities --- the “barrenness In the dim glass the demons hold, The glass of outer weariness.”

Joy causes the holy tree to flourish, while the dim glass of bitterness has a reverse effect:

“For there a fatal image grows

That the stormy night receives,

Roots half hidden under snows,

Broken boughs and blackened leaves.”

As always, I appreciate the vast stock of public-domain images that are available through Wikimedia Commons.

I am also appreciative of the wonderful online exhibition of the life and works of W.B. Yeats that is available through the National Library of Ireland.

My thanks to Giuseppe Peronato for making his clear, beautiful July 4, 2004 photograph of Rosses Point available through Creative Commons.

My thanks to Jon Sullivan for releasing into the public domain his stunning June 16, 2002 photograph of Glen-Car Waterfall and his beautiful June 16, 2002 photograph of Lough Gill.

I am especially grateful for the YouTube videos of Loreena McKennitt’s musical settings for these three treasured poems by William Butler Yeats: kuekenliebe for “Down by the Sally Gardens”; MaitreMenator for “Loreena McKennitt – Stolen Child”; katharwen for "The Two Trees"

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This hub is dedicated to the memory of William Butler Yeats in appreciation of the mystical reality of Innisfree which he shared so memorably and so beautifully in his timeless writings.

Conner, Lester I. A Yeats Dictionary: Persons and Places in the Poetry of William Butler Yeats. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1998.

Finneran, Richard J., ed. The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats. Revised 2^nd ed. New York: Scribner Paperback Poetry, 1996.

Jeffares, A. Norman. A New Commentary on the Poems of W.B. Yeats. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1984.

Kelly, John, ed. The Collected Letters of W.B. Yeats. Volume One: 1865-1895. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986.

McCready, Sam. A William Butler Yeats Encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1997.

Nathan, Leonard E. The Tragic Drama of William Butler Yeats: Figures in a Dance. New York: Columbia University Press, 1965.

Shields, Hugh Edwin. “Yeats and the ‘Salley Gardens,’” Hermathena, Autumn 1965, pp. 22-26.

“William Butler Yeats – Biography,” Nobelprize.org, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-bio.html

Yeats, W.B. Essays and Introductions. New York: Macmillan, 1961.

Yeats, W.B. Mythologies. New York: Collier Books, 1969.

Yeats, W.B. “Nobel Lecture,” December 15, 1923. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-lecture.html

Copyright March 27, 2011 by Stessily