Cloths of heaven essay example

In this poem, a committed lover goes on to wish the most heavenly things for his ladylove from the innermost core of the heart. Yeats pours his emotions into the cauldron of this beautiful poem and the reader is left with goose bumps after absorbing the exquisiteness of the emotion of love.
In the first five lines, Yeats goes on to express the surreal things with which he wishes to adorn her. The lady is no less than treasure for the passionate lover. His dreams unfurl their wings of desire and the reader is also left lost in a realm of elegance. The imagery does not fail to enthrall one with the sweet poetry of love.
The poet imagines if he had cloths of heaven, he would spread them under the tender feet of his lover. His caressing heart would never let her tread on any path too rough not to hinder her steps. He would place her on the pedestal and adore her with all his heart. He would dedicate his every breath and would look after her. Yeats talks of the cloths being covered with golden and silver which are the colors exuded by the celestial bodies. His realm of undying love would be the heaven where the couple would live together in perfect solace to their souls. The eternity of his unparalleled love becomes an epitome of idealism and romance.
The alliterative use of the phrase “ the dim and the dark” creates the picture of the elegant colors combined together to exude a surreal beauty. The color even describes the sky and her appeal and beauty could be attributed to the sky. Yeats goes on to imagine “ nights and light and half-light” and strengthens the awe of the sky and light and the relation to the cloths of heaven. A worshiper of his lover’s beauty and tenderness, Yeats would have grazed her feet with the cloths of heaven.
However, as expressed in the last three lines, his surreal vision is marred by the grave facts of reality. Yeats faces a fall from the elevated land of his dreams where he could profess his undying love for his lady in the most resplendent ways. The reality is not as sweet as the picturesque realm of love that preoccupies the amorous mind. He accepts that he is unable to present her with the perfect land of heaven. He would give her his aspirations. His dreams are tender, and his ladylove should carefully tread on them as his dreams are dedicated to her. Hit by the cupid, W. B. Yeats requests his ladylove that she should understand the sincerity of his love, although he cannot possibly present at her feet materialistically valuable things. She needs to treat his tender heart with consideration and should never leave Yeats forlorn. Her rejection would leave him wrecked.
The poem thus portrays the conflict between the lavish desires of the romantic heart and the bondages of life which lead to conformity with the harsh reality.