Analysis of The Three Bushes
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
SAID lady once to lover,
'None can rely upon
A love that lacks its proper food;
And if your love were gone
How could you sing those songs of love?
I should be blamed, young man.
O my dear, O my dear.
Have no lit candles in your room,'
That lovely lady said,
'That I at midnight by the clock
May creep into your bed,
For if I saw myself creep in
I think I should drop dead.'
O my dear, O my dear.
'I love a man in secret,
Dear chambermaid,' said she.
'I know that I must drop down dead
If he stop loving me,
Yet what could I but drop down dead
If I lost my chastity?
O my dear, O my dear.
'So you must lie beside him
And let him think me there.
And maybe we are all the same
Where no candles are,
And maybe we are all the same
That stip the body bare.'
O my dear, O my dear.
But no dogs barked, and midnights chimed,
And through the chime she'd say,
'That was a lucky thought of mine,
My lover. looked so gay';
But heaved a sigh if the chambermaid
Looked half asleep all day.
O my dear, O my dear.
'No, not another song,' siid he,
'Because my lady came
A year ago for the first time
At midnight to my room,
And I must lie between the sheets
When the clock begins to chime.'
O my dear, O my d-ear.
'A laughing, crying, sacred song,
A leching song,' they said.
Did ever men hear such a song?
No, but that day they did.
Did ever man ride such a race?
No, not until he rode.
O my dear, O my dear.
But when his horse had put its hoof
Into a rabbit-hole
He dropped upon his head and died.
His lady saw it all
And dropped and died thereon, for she
Loved him with her soul.
O my dear, O my dear.
The chambermaid lived long, and took
Their graves into her charge,
And there two bushes planted
That when they had grown large
Seemed sprung from but a single root
So did their roses merge.
O my dear, O my dear.
When she was old and dying,
The priest came where she was;
She made a full confession.
Long looked he in her face,
And O he was a good man
And understood her case.
O my dear, O my dear.
He bade them take and bury her
Beside her lady's man,
And set a rose-tree on her grave,
And now none living can,
When they have plucked a rose there,
Know where its roots began.
O my dear, O my dear.
Scheme | axbxxcD efxfxfD xgfgfgD xhIxIhDxjxjbjD gikexkx lflxmxD xnxxgnDxoxoxxD xxxmcmD acxchcD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110 110101 01111101 011101 11111111 111111 111111 11110011 110101 1111101 110111 1111110 111111 111111 1101010 1111 11111111 111101 11111111 1111100 111111 1111011 011111 01011101 11101 01011101 110101 111111 1111011 010111 11010111 110111 1101101 110111 111111 11010111 011101 01011011 11111 01110101 1010111 1111111 01010101 01111 11011101 111111 11011101 110111 111111 11111111 010101 11011101 110111 01010111 11101 111111 011101 110101 0111010 111111 11110101 111101 111111 1111010 011111 1101010 111001 0111011 00101 111111 11110100 010101 01011101 011101 1111011 111101 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 2,117 |
Words | 463 |
Sentences | 33 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 14, 7, 7, 14, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 77 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 181 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:17 min read
- 95 Views
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"The Three Bushes" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39557/the-three-bushes>.
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