He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

The title of the poem is "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" and was written by W.B. Yeats. From the title, the reader expects the poem to be about somebody who strongly desires a special type of cloth (the Cloth of the Heaven) and expects to know what he would like to do with them. The use of capital letters highlights the three key words: Wish, Cloth and Heaven.

The poem is made up of one stanza of eight lines.
In the first five lines, the poet describes in detail the cloths of heaven, their beauty and what he would do if he had them.

In the last three lines he writes what he really has done, since he is poor and has not the precious cloths, but only his dreams to offer.

The poem tells about somebody (probably a man according to the title) who would like to have the precious and beautiful cloths of heaven to spread them under the feet of a special person (probably a woman). But he is poor, so he had spread under the feet of this person the only thing he has: his dreams.

It seems to evoke the image of the gentleman that uses his mantle to cover a puddle and let the lady walk on it without getting wet or dirty. Likewise, the poet lets the special person walk on his dreams, but he also ask her to tread softly, because dreams are fragile.

The poet used the epistrophe (repetition of the same word at the end of more lines): cloth-cloth, light-light, feet-feet, dreams-dreams, to create rhyming couplets. There are many repetitions in the poem: the words cloths, light and dreams are used three times; the words spread, feet and tread twice.
The poet used a limited range of words, most of which are adjectives to describe the cloths of heaven. As a result, the use of few words make the poem easier to read and creates a clear and strong image in the reader's mind. The key words can be easily found and the repetition give the poem rhythm and atmosphere.