Towards Break Of Day

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



WAS it the double of my dream
The woman that by me lay
Dreamed, or did we halve a dream
Under the first cold gleam of day?
I thought:  'There is a waterfall
Upon Ben Bulben side
That all my childhood counted dear;
Were I to travel far and wide
I could not find a thing so dear.'
My memories had magnified
So many times childish delight.
I would have touched it like a child
But knew my finger could but have touched
Cold stone and water.  I grew wild.
Even accusing Heaven because
It had set down among its laws:
Nothing that we love over-much
Is ponderable to our touch.
I dreamed towards break of day,
The cold blown spray in my nostril.
But she that beside me lay
Had watched in bitterer sleep
The marvellous stag of Arthur,
That lofty white stag, leap
From mountain steep to steep.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 04, 2023

45 sec read
98

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDEDEDFGHGIIJJBKBLMLL
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 769
Words 153
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 25

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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