Down By The Salley Gardens by William Butler Yeats

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.

Notes

First published as 'An Old Song Resung' in The Wanderings of Oisin and other Poems (1889).

Originally an old Irish folk song, Yeats turned this into a poem as a dedication to oral tradition.

Salley = Willow