Analysis of To A Young Beauty

William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)



DEAR fellow-artist, why so free
With every sort of company,
With every Jack and Jill?
Choose your companions from the best;
Who draws a bucket with the rest
Soon topples down the hill.
You may, that mirror for a school,
Be passionate, not bountiful
As common beauties may,
Who were not born to keep in trim
With old Ezekiel's cherubim
But those of Beauvarlet.
I know what wages beauty gives,
How hard a life her setvant lives,
Yet praise the winters gone:
There is not a fool can call me friend,
And I may dine at journey's end
With Landor and with Donne.


Scheme AABCCBDEFGFCHHIJJK
Poetic Form
Metre 11010111 110011100 1100101 11010101 11010101 110101 11110101 11001100 110101 10111101 1111 1111 11110101 1101011 110101 111011111 0111111 110011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 546
Words 105
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 435
Words per stanza (avg) 103
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
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William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. more…

All William Butler Yeats poems | William Butler Yeats Books

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