Analysis of The Black Tower
William Butler Yeats 1865 (Sandymount) – 1939 (Menton)
SAY that the men of the old black tower,
Though they but feed as the goatherd feeds,
Their money spent, their wine gone sour,
Lack nothing that a soldier needs,
That all are oath-bound men:
Those banners come not in.
There in the tomb stand the dead upright,
But winds come up from the shore:
They shake when the winds roar,
Old bones upon the mountain shake.
Those banners come to bribe or threaten,
Or whisper that a man's a fool
Who, when his own right king's forgotten,
Cares what king sets up his rule.
If he died long ago
Why do yopu dread us so?
There in the tomb drops the faint moonlight,
But wind comes up from the shore:
They shake when the winds roar,
Old bones upon the mountain shake.
The tower's old cook that must climb and clamber
Catching small birds in the dew of the morn
When we hale men lie stretched in slumber
Swears that he hears the king's great horn.
But he's a lying hound:
Stand we on guard oath-bound!
There in the tomb the dark grows blacker,
But wind comes up from the shore:
They shake when the winds roar,
Old bones upon the mountain shake.
Scheme | ababxx cdDE fgfghh cDDE aiaijj aDDE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (50%) |
Metre | 1101101110 11111011 110111110 11010101 111111 110110 100110101 1111101 111011 11010101 110111110 11010101 111111010 1111111 111101 111111 10011011 1111101 111011 11010101 01011111010 1011001101 111111010 11110111 110101 111111 100101110 1111101 111011 11010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,053 |
Words | 206 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 4, 6, 4, 6, 4 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 140 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 160 Views
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