The Hawk

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



'CALL down the hawk from the air;
Let him be hooded or caged
Till the yellow eye has grown mild,
For larder and spit are bare,
The old cook enraged,
The scullion gone wild.'
'I will not be clapped in a hood,
Nor a cage, nor alight upon wrist,
Now I have learnt to be proud
Hovering over the wood
In the broken mist
Or tumbling cloud.'
'What tumbling cloud did you cleave,
Yellow-eyed hawk of the mind,
Last evening? that I, who had sat
Dumbfounded before a knave,
Should give to my friend
A pretence of wit.'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

30 sec read
244

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCABCDEFDEFGHIJKL
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 499
Words 103
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18

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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