These Are the Clouds
These are the clouds about the fallen sun,The majesty that shuts his burning eye;The weak lay hand on what the strong has done,Till that be tumbled that was lifted highAnd discord follow upon unison,And all things at one common level lie.And therefore, friend, if your great race were runAnd these things came, so much the more therebyHave you made greatness your companion,Although it be for children that you sigh:These are the clouds about the fallen sun,The majesty that shuts his burning eye.
About this text
These Are the Clouds 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, These Are the Clouds, in Responsibilities (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36865, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-responsibilities/these-are-the-clouds.html, id L04597.
Form and metre
These Are the Clouds is 12 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABABABABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 ABABABABABAB sunA · eyeB · doneA · highB · unisonA · lieB · runA · therebyB · companionA · sighB · sunA · eyeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| These are the clouds about the fallen sun, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The majesty that shuts his burning eye; | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| The weak lay hand on what the strong has done, | 10 | ·········· |
| Till that be tumbled that was lifted high | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And discord follow upon unison, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| And all things at one common level lie. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And therefore, friend, if your great race were run | 10 | ·········· |
| And these things came, so much the more thereby | 10 | ·········· |
| Have you made greatness your companion, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| Although it be for children that you sigh: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| These are the clouds about the fallen sun, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The majesty that shuts his burning eye. | 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.