She
An image of my heart that is smitten throughOut of all likelihood, or reason.And when at last,Youth’s bitterness being past,I had thought that all my days were castAmid most lovely places; smitten as thoughIt had not learned its lesson.
Why have you laid your hands upon my eyes?What can have suddenly alarmed youWhereon ’twere bestMy eyes should never rest?What is there but the slowly fading west,The river imaging the flashing skies,All that to this moment charmed you?
Words in this poem
- likelihood n.
- Appearance; show; sign; expression. [Likely + -hood.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- whereon adv.
- On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
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.html, id L19941.
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 86%).
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 --AAA-- through · reason · lastA · pastA · castA · though · lesson
- 2 ABCCCAB eyesA · youB · bestC · restC · westC · skiesA · youB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An image of my heart that is smitten through | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘· |
| Out of all likelihood, or reason. | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And when at last, | 4 | ···· |
| Youth’s bitterness being past, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| I had thought that all my days were cast | 9 | ········· |
| Amid most lovely places; smitten as though | 11 | ˘/·/˘/˘/˘·· |
| It had not learned its lesson. | 8 | ····˘·/˘ |
| Why have you laid your hands upon my eyes? | 10 | ·········· |
| What can have suddenly alarmed you | 8 | ···/˘˘/· |
| Whereon ’twere best | 4 | ˘/·· |
| My eyes should never rest? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| What is there but the slowly fading west, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The river imaging the flashing skies, | 9 | ·/˘/˘·/˘· |
| All that to this moment charmed you? | 8 | ····/˘·· |
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.