The Attack on 'the Playboy of the Western World,' 1907
Once, when midnight smote the air,Eunuchs ran through Hell and metFrom thoroughfare to thoroughfare,While that great Juan galloped by;And like these to rail and sweatStaring upon his sinewy thigh.
Words in this poem
- thoroughfare n.
- A passage through; a passage from one street or opening to another; an unobstructed way open to the public; a public road; hence, a frequented street. [AS. þurhfaru.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Attack on 'the Playboy of the Western World,' 1907 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, The Attack on 'the Playboy of the Western World,' 1907, in Responsibilities (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36865, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-responsibilities/the-attack-on-the-playboy-of-the-western-world-1907.html, id L04560.
Form and metre
The Attack on 'the Playboy of the Western World,' 1907 is 6 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABACBC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABACBC airA · metB · thoroughfareA · byC · sweatB · thighC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Once, when midnight smote the air, | 7 | ··/···· |
| Eunuchs ran through Hell and met | 7 | /˘····· |
| From thoroughfare to thoroughfare, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| While that great Juan galloped by; | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| And like these to rail and sweat | 7 | ······· |
| Staring upon his sinewy thigh. | 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.