She
A sweetheart from another life floats thereAs though she had been forced to lingerFrom vague distressOr arrogant loveliness.Merely to loosen out a tressAmong the starry eddies of her hairUpon the paleness of a finger.
But why should you grow suddenly afraidAnd start--I at your shoulder--ImaginingThat any night could bringAn image up, or anythingEven to eyes that beauty had driven mad,But images to make me fonder.
Words in this poem
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- tress n.
- A braid, knot, or curl, of hair; a ringlet. [OE. tresse, OF. trece, F. tresse, LL. tricia, fr. Gr. tri`cha threefold, because a tress is usually formed by interlacing three pieces; akin to trei^s three. Se]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
She is in the public domain. This text is taken from Michael Robartes and the dancer, Project Gutenberg ebook #72987; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. B. Yeats, She, in Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72987, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-michael-robartes/she-2.html, id L19942.
Form and metre
She is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABCCCAB thereA · lingerB · distressC · lovelinessC · tressC · hairA · fingerB
- 2 --AAA-- afraid · shoulder · imaginingA · bringA · anythingA · mad · fonder
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A sweetheart from another life floats there | 10 | ·/··˘/˘··· |
| As though she had been forced to linger | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| From vague distress | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Or arrogant loveliness. | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Merely to loosen out a tress | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Among the starry eddies of her hair | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Upon the paleness of a finger. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| But why should you grow suddenly afraid | 9 | ·····/˘˘/ |
| And start--I at your shoulder-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Imagining | 4 | ˘/˘˘ |
| That any night could bring | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| An image up, or anything | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Even to eyes that beauty had driven mad, | 9 | /···/˘·/· |
| But images to make me fonder. | 9 | ·/˘˘···/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.