The Mountain Tomb
Pour wine and dance if Manhood still have pride,Bring roses if the rose be yet in bloom;The cataract smokes upon the mountain side,Our Father Rosicross is in his tomb.
Pull down the blinds, bring fiddle and clarionetThat there be no foot silent in the roomNor mouth from kissing, nor from wine unwet;Our Father Rosicross is in his tomb.
In vain, in vain; the cataract still criesThe everlasting taper lights the gloom;All wisdom shut into his onyx eyesOur Father Rosicross sleeps in his tomb.
About this text
The Mountain Tomb 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 Mountain Tomb, in Responsibilities (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36865, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-responsibilities/the-mountain-tomb.html, id L04571.
Form and metre
The Mountain Tomb is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 33% 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 ABAB prideA · bloomB · sideA · tombB
- 2 ABAB clarionetA · roomB · unwetA · tombB
- 3 ABAB criesA · gloomB · eyesA · tombB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pour wine and dance if Manhood still have pride, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Bring roses if the rose be yet in bloom; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The cataract smokes upon the mountain side, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Our Father Rosicross is in his tomb. | 10 | //˘······· |
| Pull down the blinds, bring fiddle and clarionet | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| That there be no foot silent in the room | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Nor mouth from kissing, nor from wine unwet; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Our Father Rosicross is in his tomb. | 10 | //˘······· |
| In vain, in vain; the cataract still cries | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| The everlasting taper lights the gloom; | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| All wisdom shut into his onyx eyes | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Our Father Rosicross sleeps in his tomb. | 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.