Friends
Now must I these three praise--Three women that have wroughtWhat joy is in my days;One that no passing thought,Nor those unpassing cares,No, not in these fifteenMany times troubled years,Could ever come betweenHeart and delighted heart;And one because her handHad strength that could unbindWhat none can understand,What none can have and thrive,Youth's dreamy load, till sheSo changed me that I liveLabouring in ecstasy.And what of her that tookAll till my youth was goneWith scarce a pitying look?How should I praise that one?When day begins to breakI count my good and bad,Being wakeful for her sake,Remembering what she had,What eagle look still shows,While up from my heart's rootSo great a sweetness flowsI shake from head to foot.
Words in this poem
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- labouring a.
- That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse, heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor; as, laboring days.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- pitying a.
- Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.
- wakeful a.
- Not sleeping; indisposed to sleep; watchful; vigilant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Friends is in the public domain. This text is taken from Responsibilities, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #36865; 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, Friends, in Responsibilities (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36865, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-responsibilities/friends.html, id L04576.
Form and metre
Friends is 28 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 1 line ends 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 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 ABAB-C-C-DDDE-E-F-F-GHGHI-I- praiseA · wroughtB · daysA · thoughtB · cares · fifteenC · years · betweenC · heart · handD · unbindD · understandD · thriveE · she · liveE · ecstasy · tookF · gone · lookF · one · breakG · badH · sakeG · hadH · showsI · root · flowsI · foot
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now must I these three praise-- | 6 | ······ |
| Three women that have wrought | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| What joy is in my days; | 6 | ······ |
| One that no passing thought, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Nor those unpassing cares, | 6 | ······ |
| No, not in these fifteen | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Many times troubled years, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Could ever come between | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Heart and delighted heart; | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| And one because her hand | 6 | ······ |
| Had strength that could unbind | 6 | ····˘/ |
| What none can understand, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| What none can have and thrive, | 6 | ······ |
| Youth's dreamy load, till she | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| So changed me that I live | 6 | ······ |
| Labouring in ecstasy. | 7 | /˘˘·/˘˘ |
| And what of her that took | 6 | ······ |
| All till my youth was gone | 6 | ······ |
| With scarce a pitying look? | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| How should I praise that one? | 6 | ······ |
| When day begins to break | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| I count my good and bad, | 6 | ······ |
| Being wakeful for her sake, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Remembering what she had, | 7 | ˘/˘˘··· |
| What eagle look still shows, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| While up from my heart's root | 6 | ······ |
| So great a sweetness flows | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I shake from head to foot. | 6 | ······ |
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.