The Realists
Hope that you may understand!What can books of men that wiveIn a dragon-guarded land,Paintings of the dolphin-drawnSea-nymphs in their pearly waggonsDo, but awake a hope to liveThat had goneWith the dragons?
Words in this poem
- wive v. i.
- To marry, as a man; to take a wife. [AS. wifian, gewifian. See Wite.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Realists 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 Realists, in Responsibilities (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36865, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-responsibilities/the-realists.html, id L04568.
Form and metre
The Realists is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 62% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 A-ABC-BC understandA · wive · landA · drawnB · waggonsC · live · goneB · dragonsC
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Hope that you may understand! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| What can books of men that wive | 7 | ······· |
| In a dragon-guarded land, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Paintings of the dolphin-drawn | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Sea-nymphs in their pearly waggons | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Do, but awake a hope to live | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| That had gone | 3 | ··· |
| With the dragons? | 4 | ··/˘ |
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.