The Shadowy Waters (Introductory Lines)

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1906from Narrative and Dramatic Poems44 lines

Earlier titled "Introductory Lines", "The Shadowy Waters"

I walked among the seven woods of Coole,Shan-walla, where a willow-bordered pondGathers the wild duck from the winter dawn;Shady Kyle-dortha; sunnier Kyle-na-gno,Where many hundred squirrels are as happyAs though they had been hidden by green boughs,Where old age cannot find them; Pairc-na-lea,Where hazel and ash and privet blind the paths;Dim Pairc-na-carraig, where the wild bees flingTheir sudden fragrances on the green air;Dim Pairc-na-tarav, where enchanted eyesHave seen immortal, mild, proud shadows walk;Dim Inchy wood, that hides badger and foxAnd marten-cat, and borders that old woodWise Biddy Early called the wicked wood:Seven odours, seven murmurs, seven woods.I had not eyes like those enchanted eyes,Yet dreamed that beings happier than menMoved round me in the shadows, and at nightMy dreams were cloven by voices and by fires;And the images I have woven in this storyOf Forgael and Dectora and the empty watersMoved round me in the voices and the fires,And more I may not write of, for they that cleaveThe waters of sleep can make a chattering tongueHeavy like stone, their wisdom being half silence.How shall I name you, immortal, mild, proud shadows?I only know that all we know comes from you,And that you come from Eden on flying feet.Is Eden far away, or do you hideFrom human thought, as hares and mice and coneysThat run before the reaping-hook and lieIn the last ridge of the barley? Do our woodAnd winds and ponds cover more quiet woods,More shining winds, more star-glimmering ponds?Is Eden out of time and out of space?And do you gather about us when pale lightShining on water and fallen among leaves,And winds blowing from flowers, and whirr of feathersAnd the green quiet, have uplifted the heart?

I have made this poem for you, that men may read itBefore they read of Forgael and Dectora,As men in the old times, before the harps began,Poured out wine for the high invisible ones.

September 1900.

Text: Poetry, by W. B. Yeats (Standard Ebooks, 2024), from the collected editions of 1908 to 1928. Public domain.

In brief

Summary

Walking Coole's seven woods, the poet salutes the unseen immortal shadows.

The poet walks through the seven woods of Coole, naming each with a single detail: wild duck on a pond, squirrels, wild bees, badger and fox, and the "wicked wood" of Biddy Early. He has never seen the "immortal, mild, proud shadows" that enchanted eyes have seen there, but he has dreamed of them, and his dreams gave him the story of Forgael and Dectora. He asks where these beings come from, whether Eden is far away or hidden inside our own woods, and ends by offering the poem to them, like wine poured out for invisible gods.

Lines to remember

I walked among the seven woods of Coole,

Seven odours, seven murmurs, seven woods.

Is Eden out of time and out of space?

Line by line

Lines 1 to 16The seven woods
A roll-call of the woods at Coole, each given its Irish name and one living detail: the pond that "Gathers the wild duck", squirrels hidden from old age, bees that "fling Their sudden fragrances". The repeated "Dim" deepens the mood, and line 16 gathers everything into one chant: "Seven odours, seven murmurs, seven woods."
Lines 17 to 26Dreams of the shadows
He lacks the "enchanted eyes" that have seen the immortals, yet dreams of "beings happier than men", and at night his dreams are "cloven by voices and by fires". Those dreams gave him the images of his play. More he cannot say: the dreamers' wisdom is "half silence" and makes the tongue "Heavy like stone".
Lines 27 to 40Where is Eden?
A run of questions to the shadows. All knowledge comes from them, and they come "from Eden on flying feet". Perhaps Eden hides close by, like hares and mice in "the last ridge of the barley" before the reaping-hook, or inside our own woods and ponds. Perhaps they gather whenever light on water and "the green quiet" lift the heart.
Lines 41 to 44An offering
The last four lines dedicate the poem to the shadows. Like men of old who "Poured out wine for the high invisible ones" before the harps began to play, he sets these lines in front of his play as an offering before the story.

Themes

Seen and unseen

The poem sets real woods, named and full of creatures, against an invisible world within them. The poet cannot see the "immortal, mild, proud shadows", but he believes they move "round me in the shadows". His questions in lines 30 to 36 suggest that the other world may not be far off at all, but folded inside this one, in "more quiet woods" and "star-glimmering ponds".

Inspiration

The poem is also about where poems come from. "All we know comes from you", he tells the shadows, and the images of his play came to him in dreams, among "the voices and the fires". The poet is a receiver rather than an inventor, and even so he cannot tell everything, since the dreamers' wisdom is "half silence". The closing offering repays the debt.

Coole

The seven woods are real, and naming them (Shan-walla, Kyle-dortha, Pairc-na-lea) roots the vision in one estate in County Galway. Nature is closely observed, from privet that blinds the paths to the wood that "hides badger and fox". The mystical questions grow out of that loving attention to a particular place.

Context

The poem is dated September 1900 and introduces The Shadowy Waters, Yeats's dramatic poem about Forgael, a sea-rover sailing in search of an immortal love, and Dectora, the queen he takes captive. In the collected poems it stands, with "The Harp of Aengus", before the 1906 text of the play in the Narrative and Dramatic section.

Coole Park, near Gort in County Galway, was the home of Lady Gregory, and from 1897 Yeats spent long summers there. Its seven woods gave their name to his next collection, In the Seven Woods (1903). Biddy Early was a famous wise woman, or folk healer, of County Clare in the nineteenth century, and stories about her were gathered by Lady Gregory and Yeats.

Form

Forty-four lines of blank verse (unrhymed lines of five beats) in two paragraphs, of forty lines and four. The first sixteen lines are a list, held together by "Where" clauses and the repeated "Dim", and closed by the chant of line 16. The middle section is built from questions, which keep the tone searching rather than certain.