Salley Gardens  
Yeats was born in Sandymount, Dublin and spent his childhood in County Sligo. At  
fifteen and eighteen, he lived at the Balscadden House in Howth, where he wrote  
his first works. His family moved to London in 1886 while in his twenties he wrote  
many of his poems and plays, but he also had a summer home at Thoor Ballylee  
near Gort in County Galway.  
It was in London that he met with Maud Gonne who was tall and beautiful, and  
passionately devoted to Irish nationalism. He courted her for over three decades,  
though he learned later that she had already borne two children from a long affair.  
KDM arrangement of Yeats’ original poem  
to fit the KDM music arrangement shown  
on the next page.  
In his poem, “Down by the Salley  
Gardens” it is a reflection of a man’s  
past relationships and the regret that  
comes with decisions made in youthful  
folly. The setting of the man’s  
(It was) down by the salley gardens  
my love and I did meet;  
reflection is in a willow garden where  
lovers often meet.  
She passed the salley gardens  
with little snow-white feet.  
She bid me take love easy,  
as () leaves grow on the trees;  
But I, being young and foolish,  
with her would not agree.  
The tone of the ballad is in the past  
tense, where he remembers that his  
love had advised him to take love and  
life easy. She compared it to the  
natural growth of leaves on a tree or to  
the grass growing on the weirs.  
(It was) 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 () grass grows on the weirs;  
But I was young and foolish,  
and now (I) am full of tears.  
However, the speaker refused to listen  
to his love’s wisdom which ultimately  
fails, and it left him full of regret and  
sorrow. This theme of regret in the  
passage of time from youthful  
mistakes is central to the poem’s  
meaning.  
As mentioned, the name of the poem  
was changed in 1895, and in Irish  
Gaelic, the name “Salley Gardens” is  
“Gort na Salein,” (garden of willows).  
The long hanging willow leaves were  
often used to thatch the straw used in  
making roof tops on many of the  
houses in Ireland, even into the early  
20th Century.  
The song is also named “Down by the  
Sally Garden,” or just “Sally Garden.”  
A “weir” is a low-lying, damn head  
frequently with a bridge used to control  
waterways and to catch fish. Tall  
grasses usually grow along these  
waterways.  

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