Analysis of The Saint And The Hunchback

William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)



Hunchback. Stand up and lift your hand and bless
A man that finds great bitterness
In thinking of his lost renown.
A Roman Caesar is held down
Under this hump.

Saint. God tries each man
According to a different plan.
I shall not cease to bless because
I lay about me with the taws
That night and morning I may thrash
Greek Alexander from my flesh,
Augustus Caesar, and after these
That great rogue Alcibiades.

Hunchback. To all that in your flesh have stood
And blessed, I give my gratitude,
Honoured by all in their degrees,
But most to Alcibiades.


Scheme AXBBX CCXAXXDA XXDA
Poetic Form
Metre 111011101 01111100 01011101 01010111 1011 11111 010101001 11111101 11011101 11010111 1010111 010100101 1111 111101111 0111110 1110101 1111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 541
Words 102
Sentences 9
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 8, 4
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 146
Words per stanza (avg) 33
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

30 sec read
126

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. more…

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