Analysis of He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead

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



WERE you but lying cold and dead,
And lights were paling out of the West,
You would come hither, and bend your head,
And I would lay my head on your breast;
And you would murmur tender words,
Forgiving me, because you were dead:
Nor would you rise and hasten away,
Though you have the will of the wild birds,
But know your hair was bound and wound
About the stars and moon and sun:
O would, beloved, that you lay
Under the dock-leaves in the ground,
While lights were paling one by one.


Scheme ABABCADCEFDEF
Poetic Form
Metre 01110101 01011101 111100111 011111111 01110101 010101101 111101001 111011011 11111101 01010101 1101111 10011001 1101111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 482
Words 96
Sentences 2
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 13
Lines Amount 13
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 377
Words per stanza (avg) 94
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 09, 2023

28 sec read
424

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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