Analysis of The Withering Of The Boughs
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
I CRIED when the moon was mutmuring to the birds:
'Let peewit call and curlew cry where they will,
I long for your merry and tender and pitiful words,
For the roads are unending, and there is no place to my mind.'
The honey-pale moon lay low on the sleepy hill,
And I fell asleep upon lonely Echtge of streams.
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind;
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.
I know of the leafy paths that the witches take
Who come with their crowns of pearl and their spindles of wool,
And their secret smile, out of the depths of the lake;
I know where a dim moon drifts, where the Danaan kind
Wind and unwind their dances when the light grows cool
On the island lawns, their feet where the pale foam gleams.
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind;
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.
I know of the sleepy country, where swans fly round
Coupled with golden chains, and sing as they fly.
A king and a queen are wandering there, and the sound
Has made them so happy and hopeless, so deaf and so blind
With wisdom, they wander till all the years have gone by;
I know, and the curlew and peewit on Echtge of streams.
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind;
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.
Scheme | abacbd CD execxd CD fgfcgd CD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Song |
Metre | 1110111101 111011111 11111001001001 101101001111111 010111110101 011010110111 111100110101 0111001111111 111010110101 111111101111 011011101101 11101111011 100111010111 101011110111 111100110101 0111001111111 111010101111 10110101111 0100111001001 11111001011011 1101101101111 11001011111 111100110101 0111001111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,298 |
Words | 252 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 2, 6, 2, 6, 2 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 43 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 172 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:15 min read
- 126 Views
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