To an Isle in the Water
Shy one, shy one,Shy one of my heart,She moves in the firelightPensively apart.
She carries in the dishes,And lays them in a row.To an isle in the waterWith her would I go.
She carries in the candles,And lights the curtained room,Shy in the doorwayAnd shy in the gloom;
And shy as a rabbit,Helpful and shy.To an isle in the waterWith her would I fly.
Words in this poem
- pensively adv.
- In a pensive manner.
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
- doorway n.
- The passage of a door; entrance way into a house or a room.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To an Isle in the Water 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, To an Isle in the Water, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38877, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-poems/to-an-isle-in-the-water.html, id L16691.
Form and metre
To an Isle in the Water is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.7 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-A one · heartA · firelight · apartA
- 2 -A-A dishes · rowA · water · goA
- 3 -A-A candles · roomA · doorway · gloomA
- 4 -A-A rabbit · shyA · water · flyA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Shy one, shy one, | 4 | ···· |
| Shy one of my heart, | 5 | ····· |
| She moves in the firelight | 7 | ······· |
| Pensively apart. | 5 | /˘˘˘/ |
| She carries in the dishes, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And lays them in a row. | 6 | ······ |
| To an isle in the water | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| With her would I go. | 5 | ····· |
| She carries in the candles, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And lights the curtained room, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Shy in the doorway | 5 | ···/· |
| And shy in the gloom; | 5 | ····· |
| And shy as a rabbit, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Helpful and shy. | 4 | /˘·· |
| To an isle in the water | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| With her would I fly. | 5 | ····· |
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.