Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation
How should the world be luckier if this house,Where passion and precision have been oneTime out of mind, became too ruinousTo breed the lidless eye that loves the sun?And the sweet laughing eagle thoughts that growWhere wings have memory of wings, and allThat comes of the best knit to the best? AlthoughMean roof-trees were the sturdier for its fall,How should their luck run high enough to reachThe gifts that govern men, and after theseTo gradual Time's last gift, a written speechWrought of high laughter, loveliness and ease?
Words in this poem
- lidless a.
- Having no lid, or not covered with the lids, as the eyes; hence, sleepless; watchful.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation 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, Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation, in Responsibilities (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36865, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-responsibilities/upon-a-house-shaken-by-the-land-agitation.html, id L04595.
Form and metre
Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation is 12 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 67% 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 ABABCDCDEFEF houseA · oneB · ruinousA · sunB · growC · allD · althoughC · fallD · reachE · theseF · speechE · easeF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How should the world be luckier if this house, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Where passion and precision have been one | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Time out of mind, became too ruinous | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| To breed the lidless eye that loves the sun? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And the sweet laughing eagle thoughts that grow | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Where wings have memory of wings, and all | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| That comes of the best knit to the best? Although | 11 | ··········· |
| Mean roof-trees were the sturdier for its fall, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| How should their luck run high enough to reach | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| The gifts that govern men, and after these | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To gradual Time's last gift, a written speech | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Wrought of high laughter, loveliness and ease? | 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.