Aleel
They're rising up--they're rising through the earth,Fat Asmodel and giddy Belial,And all the fiends. Now they leap in the air.But why does Hell's gate creak so? Round and round.Hither and hither, to and fro they're running.Crouch down, old heron, out of the blind storm.
Words in this poem
- belial n.
- An evil spirit; a wicked and unprincipled person; the personification of evil. [Heb. beli ya'al; beli without + ya'al profit.]
- creak v. i.
- To make a prolonged sharp grating or ssqueaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances; as, shoes creak. [OE. creken, prob. of imitative origin; cf. E. crack, and. D. kreiken to crackle, chirp.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Aleel is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #38877; 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, Aleel, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38877, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-poems/aleel-4.html, id L16707.
Form and metre
Aleel is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They're rising up--they're rising through the earth, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Fat Asmodel and giddy Belial, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| And all the fiends. Now they leap in the air. | 10 | ·········· |
| But why does Hell's gate creak so? Round and round. | 10 | ·········· |
| Hither and hither, to and fro they're running. | 11 | /˘·/˘····/˘ |
| Crouch down, old heron, out of the blind storm. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
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.