Analysis of To A Shade
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
IF you have revisited the town, thin Shade,
Whether to look upon your monument
(I wonder if the builder has been paid)
Or happier-thoughted when the day is spent
To drink of that salt breath out of the sea
When grey gulls flit about instead of men,
And the gaunt houses put on majesty:
Let these content you and be gone again;
For they are at their old tricks yet.
A man
Of your own passionate serving kind who had brought
In his full hands what, had they only known,
Had given their children's children loftier thought,
Sweeter emotion, working in their veins
Like gentle blood, has been driven from the place,
And instilt heaped upon him for his pains,
And for his open-handedness, disgrace;
Your enemy, an old fotil mouth, had set
The pack upon him.
Go, unquiet wanderer,
And gather the Glasnevin coverlet
About your head till the dust stops your ear,
The time for you to taste of that Salt breath
And listen at the corners has not come;
You had enough of sorrow before death --
Away, away! You are safer in the tomb.
Scheme | ABACDEDEFGHIHJKJKFLMANOPOQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101000111 1011011100 1101010111 1100110111 1111111101 1111010111 0011011100 1110101101 11111111 01 111100101111 0111111101 110110101001 1001010011 11011110101 011011111 0111010001 1100111111 01011 11100 010011 0111101111 0111111111 0101010111 1101110011 01011110001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,003 |
Words | 190 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 26 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 801 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 188 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 161 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"To A Shade" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39589/to-a-shade>.
Discuss this William Butler Yeats poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In