poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

My first exposure to this poem was in a Valentine's Day card (unfortunately, not one that I received!) -- and I felt tears come to my eyes when I read it. While there are hundreds if not thousands of exquisite poems about love, this remains a favorite of mine. It captures so simply and yet so beautifully how I've often felt when I've been in love. I want to offer my partner everything he could possibly need or want and yet I know I can't -- that I can only offer my heart instead. I think what really makes this poem so lovely is the last line because there's so much vulnerability there, but it also subtly hints that the poet already knows what it's like to experience heartbreak. I resonate very strongly with that -- I only wish some of my previous partners could have tread more softly...

My best friend introduced me to this poem a year before he died. I will treasure it always. It's the only poem I've ever bothered to memorize.

The sadest element to this poem is in the knowledge of the subject of the poem - Yeats is writing about Maude Gonne, who did in fact tread on his dreams in refusing marriage to him (twice!). A Fantastic poem - such a emotional division between the two halves, a beautifully descriptive and heavenly first half, juxtoposing the second half with its human, fatigued tone concluding (in such a Yeats way) a simple but heart renching dilema.