"He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" is one of Irish poet W. B. Yeats's most famous works. In this short poem, a lover wishes that he could spread the "heavens' embroidered cloths" out at his beloved's feet, and he regrets that he can only offer her his "dreams" to walk over instead—dreams upon which he begs her to "tread softly," lest she rip them to shreds. Love, this short but powerful poem suggests, can feel at once transcendently beautiful and perilous. Yeats published the poem in his third collection, The Wind Among the Reeds (1899). It was inspired by his love for Maud Gonne, the Irish actress who would become Yeats's muse but did not return his romantic affections.
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The Full Text of “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”
1Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
2Enwrought with golden and silver light,
3The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
4Of night and light and the half-light,
5I would spread the cloths under your feet:
6But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
7I have spread my dreams under your feet;
8Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
The Full Text of “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”
1Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
2Enwrought with golden and silver light,
3The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
4Of night and light and the half-light,
5I would spread the cloths under your feet:
6But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
7I have spread my dreams under your feet;
8Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
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“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” Summary
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“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” Themes
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The Glory and Vulnerability of Love
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”
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Lines 1-4
Had I the heavens’ 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, -
Line 5
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
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Lines 6-8
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
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“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” Symbols
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The Cloths of Heaven
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“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Repetition
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Imagery
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Metaphor
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End-Stopped Line
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“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Enwrought
- Half-light
- Tread
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” Speaker
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“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”
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More “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem.
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A Short Biography — Learn more about Yeats's life via the Poetry Foundation.
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The Yeats Society — Visit the website of the Yeats Society, an organization dedicated to celebrating Yeats's work.
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Yeats and Maud Gonne — Read an article discussing Yeats's relationship with Maud Gonne, the woman who inspired this poem (and many, many others).
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LitCharts on Other Poems by William Butler Yeats
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