Analysis of Under The Moon

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



I HAVE no happiness in dreaming of Brycelinde,
Nor Avalon the grass-green hollow, nor Joyous Isle,
Where one found Lancelot crazed and hid him for a while;
Nor Uladh, when Naoise had thrown a sail upon the wind;
Nor lands that seem too dim to be burdens on the heart:
Land-under-Wave, where out of the moon's light and the sun's
Seven old sisters wind the threads of the long-lived ones,
Land-of-the-Tower, where Aengus has thrown the gates apart,
And Wood-of-Wonders, where one kills an ox at dawn,
To find it when night falls laid on a golden bier.
Therein are many queens like Branwen and Guinevere;
And Niamh and Laban and Fand, who could change to an otter or fawn,
And the wood-woman, whose lover was changed to a blue-eyed hawk;
And whether I go in my dreams by woodland, or dun, or shore,
Or on the unpeopled waves with kings to pull at the oar,
I hear the harp-string praise them, or hear their mournful talk.
Because of something told under the famished horn
Of the hunter's moon, that hung between the night and the day,
To dream of women whose beauty was folded in dis may,
Even in an old story, is a burden not to be borne.


Scheme ABBAACCADEEDFGGFHAIH
Poetic Form
Metre 11110001011 110011101101 111101011101 111111010101 1111111110101 1101111011001 1011010110111 1101011110101 011101111111 111111110101 0111011101 0101001111111011 001101101110111 01011011111111 110111111101 1101111111101 011101100101 10101110101001 11110110110011 100111010101111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,125
Words 212
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 44
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 882
Words per stanza (avg) 210
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 11, 2023

1:04 min read
107

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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