To a Squirrel at Kyle-Na-No
from The Wild Swans at Coole by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Come play with me;
Why should you run
Through the shaking tree
As though I’d a gun
To strike you dead?
When all I would do
Is to scratch your head
And let you go.
This poem by the Nobel Laureate Irish poet W. B. Yeats was first published in 1917. Kyle-na-no was one of the woods at Coole in Ireland. It was first spelt as Kyle-na-ngo but became Kyle-na-no in The Collected Poems by W B Yeats edition.
In his Reveries over Childhood and Youth, Yeats wrote, “I fished for pike at Castle Dragan and shot at birds with a muzzle-loading pistol until somebody shot a rabbit and I heard it squeal. From that on I would kill nothing but the dumb fish.” Yeats wrote another poem in 1916 called ‘An Appointment’ about ‘the proud, wayward squirrel.’
I love the idea of a series of wildlife poems linked to your photos and what a great addition to #AnimalTales – did you ever see the poems I wrote on The Kingfisher and The Buzzard? They are not up to Yate’s standard but I enjoyed penning them.
I’ll have to take a look at them Rosie!
I like this. Didn’t know anyone had written poetry to a squirrel, how marvellous 🙂
That’s a lovely capture!
Thank you Dean.
What a great poem. I love watching the squirrel collecting walnuts and burying them on the green.
Thank you Kizzy – i’ve wanted to do a poem series related to wildlife and nature linked to photography. So this is my first one!