The Rose of the World
Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?For these red lips, with all their mournful pride,Mournful that no new wonder may betide,Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam,And Usna's children died.
We and the labouring world are passing by:Amid men's souls, that waver and give place,Like the pale waters in their wintry race,Under the passing stars, foam of the sky,Lives on this lonely face.
Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode:Before you were, or any hearts to beat,Weary and kind one lingered by His seat;He made the world to be a grassy roadBefore her wandering feet.
Words in this poem
- betide v. t.
- To happen to; to befall; to come to ; as, woe betide the wanderer. [OE. bitiden; pref. bi-, be- + tiden, fr. AS. tidan, to happen, fr. tid time. See Tide.]
- labouring a.
- That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse, heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor; as, laboring days.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- waver v. i.
- To play or move to and fro; to move one way and the other; hence, to totter; to reel; to swing; to flutter. [OE. waveren, from AS. wæfre wavering, restless. See Wave, v. i.]
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Rose of the World 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 Rose of the World, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38877, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-poems/the-rose-of-the-world.html, id L16649.
Form and metre
The Rose of the World is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.3 syllables. 7% 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 ABBAB dreamA · prideB · betideB · gleamA · diedB
- 2 ABBAB byA · placeB · raceB · skyA · faceB
- 3 ABBAB abodeA · beatB · seatB · roadA · feetB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream? | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| For these red lips, with all their mournful pride, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Mournful that no new wonder may betide, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| And Usna's children died. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| We and the labouring world are passing by: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Amid men's souls, that waver and give place, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Like the pale waters in their wintry race, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Under the passing stars, foam of the sky, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Lives on this lonely face. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode: | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Before you were, or any hearts to beat, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Weary and kind one lingered by His seat; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| He made the world to be a grassy road | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Before her wandering feet. | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
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.