King and No King
'Would it were anything but merely voice!'The No King cried who after that was King,Because he had not heard of anythingThat balanced with a word is more than noise;Yet Old Romance being kind, let him prevailSomewhere or somehow that I have forgot,Though he'd but cannon--Whereas we that had thoughtTo have lit upon as clean and sweet a taleHave been defeated by that pledge you gaveIn momentary anger long ago;And I that have not your faith, how shall I knowThat in the blinding light beyond the graveWe'll find so good a thing as that we have lost?The hourly kindness, the day's common speech,The habitual content of each with eachWhen neither soul nor body has been crossed.
Words in this poem
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- somehow adv.
- In one way or another; in some way not yet known or designated; by some means; as, the thing must be done somehow; he lives somehow.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- hourly a.
- Happening or done every hour; occurring hour by hour; frequent; often repeated; renewed hour by hour; continual.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
King and No King 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, King and No King, in Responsibilities (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36865, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-responsibilities/king-and-no-king.html, id L04588.
Form and metre
King and No King is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 50% 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 -AA-B--BCDDCEFFE voice · kingA · anythingA · noise · prevailB · forgot · thought · taleB · gaveC · agoD · knowD · graveC · lostE · speechF · eachF · crossedE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Would it were anything but merely voice!' | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The No King cried who after that was King, | 10 | ·········· |
| Because he had not heard of anything | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That balanced with a word is more than noise; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Yet Old Romance being kind, let him prevail | 10 | ··˘//···˘/ |
| Somewhere or somehow that I have forgot, | 10 | /··/····˘/ |
| Though he'd but cannon--Whereas we that had thought | 11 | ···/˘˘/···· |
| To have lit upon as clean and sweet a tale | 11 | ··········· |
| Have been defeated by that pledge you gave | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| In momentary anger long ago; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| And I that have not your faith, how shall I know | 11 | ··········· |
| That in the blinding light beyond the grave | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| We'll find so good a thing as that we have lost? | 11 | ··········· |
| The hourly kindness, the day's common speech, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The habitual content of each with each | 10 | ·˘/˘/˘···· |
| When neither soul nor body has been crossed. | 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.