Excerpt from Celtic Spirit on

William Butler Yeats

WIlliam Butler Yeats, arguably, did more to save the Celtic lore, language and legend than any other person. While he lived primarily in Dublin, he often visited the West of Ireland, particularly Sligo, his family home.  

Trish as our narrator as I read another excerpt from Celtic Spirit.

The light is perfect when we gather after dinner for Kevin’s twilight poetry session.

The color, the softness, the sense of magic in the air is perfect. They say the Celts 

loved the in-between, and what better example of in-between could be found than to be on the strand of beach between water and land at twilight on a day when both sun and moon appear. 

Megan and I made luminaries out of little brown candy bags filled with sand and votives. We set them out to guide everyone down the beach to the place Kevin had chosen. They aren’t much to look at now, but it will be dark when we end and they will be brilliant, to use that wonderful Irish expression. 

Kevin looks so calm and self-assured as he welcomes everyone. “Yeats had always loved the West of Ireland, especially Sligo, his childhood home. His efforts to capture and write the old stories of the Gaelic tradition before they were gone and to write them in plain English are best illustrated in “By the Roadside”, from The Celtic Twilight. His aim was to bring the arts, imagination, and magic back to the people. His belief was that the Church took over control of all culture in medieval times and that the true Celtic spirit needed CPR. He breathed life into it again. 

Tonight I asked some of the group to read a sample of his works to us.

Skipping ahead a bit-

Then Gordie reads. 

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths.

 Enwrought with the golden and silver light. 

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and half-light, 

I would spread the cloths under your feet. 

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

 I have spread my dreams beneath your feet; 

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams… 

Another musical interlude follows, only this time Lily is joined by Jake on the tin whistle and Gordie on the drum. Kevin, who has been sitting in the sand soaking up the words of his favorite poet along with the rest of us, stands. Must be the end of the program, I think with a tinge of disappointment. “This last is from The Stolen Child,” Kevin tells us.” 

Come faeries, take me out of this dull world, 

For I would ride with you upon the wind 

And dance upon the mountains like a flame. 

The faery music I’m imagining flows into the harp music of our own magical harpist and I feel totally swept away. When I come down from my own private cloud, I look around for Megan. She is off in her own dreamland and I thank my lucky stars for the love and joy and lightness she has brought into my world.

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