Analysis of An Image From A Past Life
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
He. Never until this night have I been stirred.
The elaborate starlight throws a reflection
On the dark stream,
Till all the eddies gleam;
And thereupon there comes that scream
From terrified, invisible beast or bird:
Image of poignant recollection.
She. An image of my heart that is smitten through
Out of all likelihood, or reason,
And when at last,
Youth's bitterness being past,
I had thought that all my days were cast
Amid most lovely places; smitten as though
It had not learned its lesson.
He. Why have you laid your hands upon my eyes?
What can have suddenly alarmed you
Whereon 'twere best
My eyes should never rest?
What is there but the slowly fading west,
The river imaging the flashing skies,
All that to this moment charmed you?
She. A Sweetheart from another life floats there
As though she had been forced to linger
From vague distress
Or arrogant loveliness,
Merely to loosen out a tress
Among the starry eddies of her hair
Upon the paleness of a finger.
He. But why should you grow suddenly afraid
And start -- I at your shoulder --
Imagining
That any night could bring
An image up, or anything
Even to eyes that beauty had driven mad,
But images to make me fonder?
She. Now She has thrown her arms above her head;
Whether she threw them up to flout me,
Or but to find,
Now that no fingers bind,
That her hair streams upon the wind,
I do not know, that know I am afraid
Of the hovering thing night brought me.
Scheme | ABCCCAB DBEEEXB FDGGGFD HIJFJHI KILLLXI XMNNNKM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001111111 0010110010 1011 110101 0011111 1100100111 10110010 111011111101 11110110 0111 1100101 111111101 01110101011 1111110 11111110111 111100011 111 111101 1111010101 0101000101 11111011 1011010111 111111110 1101 11001 10110101 0101010101 01011010 11111110001 0111110 0100 110111 1101110 10111101101 110011110 11111010101 101111111 1111 111101 10110101 1111111101 101001111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,395 |
Words | 265 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 188 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 15, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 101 Views
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"An Image From A Past Life" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39285/an-image-from-a-past-life>.
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