Analysis of Three Songs To The Same Tune
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
I
GRANDFATHER sang it under the gallows:
' Hear, gentlemen, ladies, and all mankind:
Money is good and a girl might be better.
But good strong blows are delights to the mind.'
There, standing on the catt,
He sang it from his heart.
Those fanatics all that we do would undo;
Down the fanatic, down the clown;
Down, down, hammer them down,
Down to the tune of O'Donnell Abu.
'A girl I had, but she followed another,
Money I had, and it went in the night,
Strong drink I had, and it brought me to sorrow,
But a good strong cause and blows are delight.'
All there caught up the tune:
'On, on, my darling man'.
Those fanatics all that we do would undo;
Down the fanatic, down the clown;
Down, down, hammer them down,
Down to the tune of O'Donnell Abu.
'Money is good and a girl might be better,
No matter what happens and who takes the fall,
But a good strong cause' -- the rope gave a jerk there,
No more sang he, for his throat was too small;
But he kicked before he died,
He did it out of pride.
Those fanatics all that we do would undo;
Down the fanatic, down the clown;
Down, down, hammer them down,
Down to the tune of O'Donnell Abu.
II
Justify all those renowned generations;
They left their bodies to fatten the wolves,
They left their homesteads to fatten the foxes,
Fled to far countries, or sheltered themselves
In cavem, crevice, hole,
Defending Ireland's soul.
'Drown all the dogs,' said the fierce young woman,
'They killed my goose and a cat.
Drown, drown in the water-but,
Scheme | axbCbdxEFFEcgxgxxEFFEChxhiiEFFE axxxxjjxdx |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 101110010 1100100111 10110011110 1111101101 110101 111111 10101111101 10010101 111011 1101101010 01111110010 1011011001 11110111110 1011101101 111101 111101 10101111101 10010101 111011 1101101010 10110011110 11011001101 10111011011 1111111111 1110111 111111 10101111101 10010101 111011 1101101010 1 101101010 1111011001 1111110010 1111011001 01101 010101 1101101110 1111001 1100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,443 |
Words | 280 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 31, 10 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 564 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 139 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 06, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 139 Views
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"Three Songs To The Same Tune" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39584/three-songs-to-the-same-tune>.
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