Bridget
Because I bid her clean the pots for supperShe took that old book down out of the thatch;She has been doubled over it ever since.We should be deafened by her groans and moansHad she to work as some do, Father Hart;Get up at dawn like me and mend and scourOr ride abroad in the boisterous night like you,The pyx and blessed bread under your arm.
Words in this poem
- boisterous a.
- Rough or rude; unbending; unyielding; strong; powerful. [OE. boistous; of uncertain origin; cf. W. bwyst wild, savage, wildness, ferocity, bwystus ferocious.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Bridget 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, Bridget, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38877, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-poems/bridget.html, id L16668.
Form and metre
Bridget is 8 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 83%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Because I bid her clean the pots for supper | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| She took that old book down out of the thatch; | 10 | ·········· |
| She has been doubled over it ever since. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| We should be deafened by her groans and moans | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Had she to work as some do, Father Hart; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Get up at dawn like me and mend and scour | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Or ride abroad in the boisterous night like you, | 11 | ··˘/··/˘··· |
| The pyx and blessed bread under your arm. | 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.