Cathleen
Bend down your faces, Oona and Aleel;I gaze upon them as the swallow gazesUpon the nest under the eave, beforeShe wander the loud waters. Do not weepToo great a while, for there is many a candleOn the High Altar though one fall. Aleel,Who sang about the dancers of the woods,That know not the hard burden of the world,Having but breath in their kind bodies, farewell!And farewell, Oona, you who played with meAnd bore me in your arms about the houseWhen I was but a child--and therefore happy,Therefore happy even like those that dance.The storm is in my hair and I must go.
About this text
Cathleen 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, Cathleen, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38877, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-poems/cathleen-5.html, id L16643.
Form and metre
Cathleen is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 A---BA--B----- aleelA · gazes · before · weep · candleB · aleelA · woods · world · farewellB · me · house · happy · dance · go
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bend down your faces, Oona and Aleel; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| I gaze upon them as the swallow gazes | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Upon the nest under the eave, before | 10 | ·········· |
| She wander the loud waters. Do not weep | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Too great a while, for there is many a candle | 11 | ·······/·/˘ |
| On the High Altar though one fall. Aleel, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Who sang about the dancers of the woods, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That know not the hard burden of the world, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Having but breath in their kind bodies, farewell! | 11 | /˘·····/˘·/ |
| And farewell, Oona, you who played with me | 10 | ··//˘····· |
| And bore me in your arms about the house | 10 | ·········· |
| When I was but a child--and therefore happy, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Therefore happy even like those that dance. | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| The storm is in my hair and I must go. | 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.