Analysis of The Shadowy Waters
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
I walked among the seven woods of Coole:
Shan-walla, where a willow-hordered pond
Gathers the wild duck from the winter dawn;
Shady Kyle-dortha; sunnier Kyle-na-no,
Where many hundred squirrels are as happy
As though they had been hidden hy green houghs
Where old age cannot find them; Paire-na-lee,
Where hazel and ash and privet hlind the paths:
Dim Pairc-na-carraig, where the wild bees fling
Their sudden fragrances on the green air;
Dim Pairc-na-tarav, where enchanted eyes
Have seen immortal, mild, proud shadows walk;
Dim Inchy wood, that hides badger and fox
And marten-cat, and borders that old wood
Wise Buddy Early called the wicked wood:
Seven odours, seven murmurs, seven woods.
I had not eyes like those enchanted eyes,
Yet dreamed that beings happier than men
Moved round me in the shadows, and at night
My dreams were clown hy voices and by fires;
And the images I have woven in this story
Of Forgael and Dectora and the empty waters
Moved round me in the voices and the fires,
And more I may not write of, for they that cleave
The waters of sleep can make a chattering tongue
Heavy like stone, their wisdom being half silence.
How shall I name you, immortal, mild, proud shadows?
I only know that all we know comes from you,
And that you come from Eden on flying feet.
Is Eden far away, or do you hide
From human thought, as hares and mice and coneys
That run before the reaping-hook and lie
In the last ridge of the barley? Do our woods
And winds and ponds cover more quiet woods,
More shining winds, more star-glimmering ponds?
Is Eden out of time and out of space?
And do you gather about us when pale light
Shining on water and fallen among leaves,
And winds blowing from flowers, and whirr of feathers
And the green quiet, have uplifted the heart?
I have made this poem for you, that men may read it
Before they read of Forgael and Dectora,
As men in the old times, before the harps began,
Poured out wine for the high invisible ones.
Scheme | XXXXABAXXCDXXEEFDXGHAHHXXXXXXXBXF FXXGXHXXCXX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010111 11010111 1001110101 10111111 11010101110 1111110111 1111011111 1100101101 111110111 1101001011 111110101 110101111 111111001 0101010111 1101010101 1011010101 1111110101 1111010011 111001011 11011100110 0010011100110 1101001010 11100100010 01111111111 010111101001 101111010110 11111010111 11011111111 01111101101 1101011111 1101110101 1101010101 001110101101 0101101101 1101111001 1101110111 01110011111 10110010011 011011001110 00110110001 1111101111111 01111101 110011010101 11110101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,921 |
Words | 355 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 33, 11 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 771 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 177 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 04, 2023
- 1:46 min read
- 65 Views
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