He Wishes For The Clothes Of Heaven
I'll say no more, because these say it all...
Had I the heaven's 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.
-William Butler Yeats
Had I the heaven's 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.
-William Butler Yeats
posted by Frank at 6:07 PM
3 Comments:
I really liked that one, it was touching.
When I see Yeats I think of two things: The Cranberries song "Yeats' Grave" and I dont often relay this story, because it shows my silliness, but what the hell, this is the internet.
When I was in my 2nd or 3rd year of studying English, the instructor put a record on with Yeats reading his own work.
The first words startled me severely, and the rest sounded like he was doing incantations- casting spells.
I closed my eyes. In my mind I was breathless with laughter. In my mind, I fell over and out of the chair, laughing at the chanting. When I opened my eyes, I looked at everyone around the table, and there they were, with hands clasped to breast, reverent, it was if he were in the room with us. As if they werent dying to laugh too...
They werent.
That is when I knew I was different. I was not one of them. I was not ready for this. It was a sad realization really. I hung on for another year completed all but one of the courses. I guess I thought I could just ignore what I already knew.
That was quite a while ago.
Im not saying that if I heard the record now I would NOT laugh, but maybe I would listen to the words too.
Never did get that English Degree.
tsk, tsk, tsk.
I have trouble sometimes not laughing in "reverent" situations too! Many times I'll see the "hilarious" in a situation, especially when others seem so intense, so focused, so ridiculous!
A girl from Coumbia that I worked with at a call center (yes, I too was a call center guy once)once actually fell out of her seat, as she sat to far forward in it, and these cheap chairs would tip over if you did that. She fell on to the floor, and then laid there laughing at herself while laying on her side. I saw the opportunity, so I chastized her, saying, "I don't know about your country, but in this country, we do not just lay all over the floor whenever we feel like it!" She was already laughing hard, and she almost went into convulsions after I said this. It was hilarious. She could have been very embarrassed, but she instead chose to laugh at the predicament she "fell" into, for which she gained my respect, as well as my ongoing "advice" on how we handle ourselves in this country!
I can't imagine witnessing that. I think I would have been close to death from laughter.
When I was younger I used to get these unbelievable laughing fits where I would turn red and could not breathe. So laughing to death- that was probably possible for me. I havent had a really good laugh in a long time though.
I dont know why.
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