The Child
You love that young man there,Yet I could make you ride upon the winds,Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
When winter sleep is abroad my hair grows thin,My feet unsteady. When the leaves awakenMy mother carries me in her golden arms;I'll soon put on my womanhood and marryThe spirits of wood and water, but who can tellWhen I was born for the first time? I thinkI am much older than the eagle cockThat blinks and blinks on Ballygawley Hill,And he is the oldest thing under the moon.
One called,I sent my messengers for milk and fire,She called again and after that I came.
Though you have made all these obedient,You have not charmed my sight and won from meA wish or gift to make you powerful;I'll turn you from the house.
Because you took away the crucifixI am so mighty that there's none can pass,Unless I will it, where my feet have dancedOr where I've whirled my finger-tops.
Words in this poem
- crucifix n.
- A representation in art of the figure of Christ upon the cross; esp., the sculptured figure affixed to a real cross of wood, ivory, metal, or the like, used by the Roman Catholics in their devotions. [F. crucifix or LL. crucifixum, fr. L. crux, crucis, cross + figere, fixum, to fix. See Cross, and Fix, and cf. Crucify.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Child 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, The Child, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38877, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-poems/the-child-2.html, id L16677.
Form and metre
The Child is 24 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. 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 86%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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.
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.
- 2 AA------- thinA · awakenA · arms · marry · tell · think · cock · hill · moon
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You love that young man there, | 6 | ······ |
| Yet I could make you ride upon the winds, | 10 | ·········· |
| Run on the top of the dishevelled tide, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And dance upon the mountains like a flame. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When winter sleep is abroad my hair grows thin, | 11 | ·/˘··˘/···· |
| My feet unsteady. When the leaves awaken | 11 | ··˘/˘···˘/˘ |
| My mother carries me in her golden arms; | 11 | ·/˘/˘···/˘· |
| I'll soon put on my womanhood and marry | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| The spirits of wood and water, but who can tell | 12 | ·/˘···/˘···· |
| When I was born for the first time? I think | 10 | ·········· |
| I am much older than the eagle cock | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That blinks and blinks on Ballygawley Hill, | 10 | ·········· |
| And he is the oldest thing under the moon. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| One called, | 2 | ·· |
| I sent my messengers for milk and fire, | 11 | ···/˘˘···/˘ |
| She called again and after that I came. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Though you have made all these obedient, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| You have not charmed my sight and won from me | 10 | ·········· |
| A wish or gift to make you powerful; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| I'll turn you from the house. | 6 | ······ |
| Because you took away the crucifix | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| I am so mighty that there's none can pass, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Unless I will it, where my feet have danced | 10 | ·········· |
| Or where I've whirled my finger-tops. | 9 | ····˘·/˘· |
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.