Analysis of The Wild Old Wicked Man
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
BECAUSE I am mad about women
I am mad about the hills,'
Said that wild old wicked man
Who travels where God wills.
'Not to die on the straw at home.
Those hands to close these eyes,
That is all I ask, my dear,
From the old man in the skies.
Daybreak and a candle-end.
'Kind are all your words, my dear,
Do not the rest withhold.
Who can know the year, my dear,
when an old man's blood grows cold? '
I have what no young man can have
Because he loves too much.
Words I have that can pierce the heart,
But what can he do but touch?'
Daybreak and a candle-end.
Then Said she to that wild old man,
His stout stick under his hand,
'Love to give or to withhold
Is not at my command.
I gave it all to an older man:
That old man in the skies.
Hands that are busy with His beads
Can never close those eyes.'
Daybreak and a candle-end.
'Go your ways, O go your ways,
I choose another mark,
Girls down on the seashore
Who understand the dark;
Bawdy talk for the fishermen;
A dance for the fisher-lads;
When dark hangs upon the water
They turn down their beds.
Daybreak and a candle-end.
'A young man in the dark am I,
But a wild old man in the light,
That can make a cat laugh, or
Can touch by mother wit
Things hid in their marrow-bones
From time long passed away,
Hid from all those warty lads
That by their bodies lay.
Dayhreak and a candle-end.
'All men live in suffering,
I know as few can know,
Whether they take the upper road
Or stay content on the low,
Rower bent in his row-boat
Or weaver bent at his loom,
Horseman erect upon horseback
Or child hid in the womb.
Daybreak and a candlc-cnd.
'That some stream of lightning
From the old man in the skies
Can burn out that suffering
No right-taught man denies.
But a coarse old man am I,
I choose the second-best,
I forget it all awhile
Upon a woman's breast.'
Daybreak and a candlc-end.
Scheme | xabaxcdCE dfdfxgxgE bhfhbcxcE xijixkxxE lxjxxmkme noxoxpxpe nCnclqxqe |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011110110 1110101 1111101 110111 11110111 111111 1111111 1011001 100101 1111111 110101 1110111 1111111 11111111 011111 11111101 1111111 100101 11111111 1111011 1111101 111101 111111101 111001 11110111 110111 100101 1111111 110101 11101 10101 10110100 0110101 11101010 11111 100101 01100111 10111001 1110111 111101 1101101 111101 111111 111101 100101 1110100 111111 10110101 1110101 1010111 1101111 1001011 111001 10011 111110 1011001 1111100 111101 1011111 110101 1011101 010101 10011 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,778 |
Words | 366 |
Sentences | 23 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 63 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 200 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 22, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 286 Views
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