ABSTRACT
The poem's stated month of composition, Aug. 1902, is corroborated by JQ's later account of his first visit to Coole: One morning Lady Gregory, Dr. Hyde, and myself wandered through one of the beautiful old gardens. WBY was in residence at AG's Coole Park during the summer of 1902, with a number of literary activities on his hands; but this was also a time when public events impinged pressingly on the poet's time and his imagination. Despite the idyllic atmosphere conjured by the opening lines, that summer at Coole had not been an entirely quiet one. Disagreements about ownership and excavation rights continued for some time, though in the end perhaps little real archaeological damage was done. Modern discussion of the poem broadly follows R. Foster's sensible summary, that it ‘celebrated the peace of Coole and the restoration of a sense of proportion in escape from public agitation, with the threat of apocalypse introduced ironically at the end’.
