Father Hart
Since you have come into this barony,I will instruct you in our blessed faith;And being so keen witted you'll soon learn.
We must be tender to all budding things,Our Maker let no thought of CalvaryTrouble the morning stars in their first song.
Words in this poem
- barony n.
- The fee or domain of a baron; the lordship, dignity, or rank of a baron. [OF. baronie, F. baronnie, LL. baronia. See Baron.]
- instruct a.
- Arranged; furnished; provided. [L. instructus, p. p. of instruere to furnish, provide, construct, instruct; pref. in- in, struere. See Structure.]
- calvary n.
- The place where Christ was crucified, on a small hill outside of Jerusalem. Luke xxiii. 33. [L. calvaria a bare skull, fr. calva the scalp without hair. fr. calvus bald; cf. F. calvaire.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Father Hart 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, Father Hart, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38877, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-poems/father-hart.html, id L16675.
Form and metre
Father Hart is 6 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 76% 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 trochaic 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.
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 trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Since you have come into this barony, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| I will instruct you in our blessed faith; | 10 | ··˘/··/˘·· |
| And being so keen witted you'll soon learn. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| We must be tender to all budding things, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Our Maker let no thought of Calvary | 11 | /˘/˘····/˘˘ |
| Trouble the morning stars in their first song. | 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.