He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

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

Why this poem? Because I have just had to study it with a class of ten and eleven year old childen. I was quite unsure about how this would go, but once again, the kids blew me away with their insight. The general consensus was that it was a poor young man who had fallen in love with a rich young woman. He knows that she will not be able to marry him (because in the "olden days" you had to marry within your class) but he offers her all he has - his dreams. He asks her not to make fun of him. Works for me! Today we are making a cloth of dreams - I've visited the scrapbooking shelves at Big W and stocked up on glitter, sparkles, coloured paper, stickers and alfoil. Can't wait to see their creations..........