Steyning, W.B Yeats, Doors, Dreams

He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven
by William Butler Yeats

Had I the heavens' 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.

This day was glorious!! Mr. D has been on the search for bottles of Velocity Ale and thought perhaps he would be able to find some here, but no.

Although, we have driven through Steyning many times as it is only ten minutes away, we have never stopped.

Today, we parked the car and wandered through the village.

I did not, however, realize that the poet, Yeats, spent his last years in Steyning living with Edith Shackleton Heald and her sister.

Or that Parnell was married here or that John Launder was burned at the stake for refusing to renounce his protestant beliefs during the reign of Queen Mary John Launder

Nor did I know I would find a lovely little bookstore where I would buy a Virago Classic Edition of 84 Charing Cross Road...

But the first thing that caught my eye was this cottage: Rosemary Cottage.

Yet another English cottage I have decided was meant to belong to me.

But it is the door, I think... I am drawn to doors... Always seeking a way in, or sometimes out...

So a spontaneous trip to a local village on a sunny afternoon has led to thoughts of doors, english cottages, the forgotten poetry of Yeats, dreams, moments suspended in time...