Analysis of Before The World Was Made
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
If I make the lashes dark
And the eyes more bright
And the lips more scarlet,
Or ask if all be right
From mirror after mirror,
No vanity's displayed:
I'm looking for the face I had
Before the world was made.
What if I look upon a man
As though on my beloved,
And my blood be cold the while
And my heart unmoved?
Why should he think me cruel
Or that he is betrayed?
I'd have him love the thing that was
Before the world was made.
| Scheme | xaxaxbxB xxxxxbxB |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | |
| Metre | 1110101 00111 001110 111111 1101010 1101 11010111 010111 11110101 111101 0111101 01101 1111110 111101 11110111 010111 |
| Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
| Characters | 436 |
| Words | 90 |
| Sentences | 5 |
| Stanzas | 2 |
| Stanza Lengths | 8, 8 |
| Lines Amount | 16 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 165 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 27 sec read
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"Before The World Was Made" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39295/before-the-world-was-made>.
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