A Night at Downey's

Downey's is a bar on the other side of town. It's got music and laughter, song and dance. People of all ages come and play their instruments to the rest of the people at the pub. My class and I went one night, we got free drinks and some snacks while the people in the pub played their instruments and sung their songs. I was lucky enough to sit quite close to the musicians. I felt like I was really in the music and since I was practically apart of the circle of performers, I really felt like a part of the performance itself. I briefly read a poem before this moment at Downey's, and it was titled "The Fiddler of Dooney". The last two lines in the fourth stanza perfectly capture the essence of Downey's "And the merry love the fiddle/ And the merry love to dance". I was surrounded by so many talented, cheerful people that I wish the moment didn't have to end but all good things must. The poem reads like a song, its smooth and lyrical like an ocean and leaves the reader satisfied. The last stanza of the poem states, "And when the folk there spy me, / They will all come up to me, / With 'Here is the fiddler of Dooney!'/ And dance like a wave of the sea". Yeats is writing about the fiddler after death at this point and how even when he arrives through the gates, the people will celebrate and live like they would with song and dance. I imagine the fiddler's afterlife like the atmosphere of Downey's, one full of people doing what they know and love.