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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 09, 2023

28 sec read
424

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCADCEFDEF
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 482
Words 96
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 13

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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