Yeats’s speaker addresses a squirrel that has just bolted through a shaking tree. The voice is gentle and faintly amused, asking why the creature runs as though a gun were pointed at it. The speaker wants nothing threatening: only to scratch the squirrel’s head for a moment and then release it. That last phrase, “and let you go,” is the heart of the poem. The offer is for brief, friendly contact, not capture or ownership. The short lines and quick rhymes create a light, skipping rhythm that fits the squirrel’s nervous energy, while the tone stays soft and coaxing. The mood is playful but also a little wistful, since the squirrel cannot understand the speaker’s harmless intention. It captures the small distance between human affection and animal wildness, and the way fear can make a friendly gesture look like danger.
To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-gno — Summary
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.