Human Dignity
Like the moon her kindness is,If kindness I may callWhat has no comprehension in’t,But is the same for allAs though my sorrow were a sceneUpon a painted wall.
So like a bit of stone I lieUnder a broken tree.I could recover if I shriekedMy heart’s agonyTo passing bird, but I am dumbFrom human dignity.
About this text
Human Dignity is in the public domain. This text is taken from The tower, Project Gutenberg ebook #72985; 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, Human Dignity, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/human-dignity.html, id L19982.
Form and metre
Human Dignity is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 -A-A-A is · callA · in't · allA · scene · wallA
- 2 AA---- lieA · treeA · shrieked · agony · dumb · dignity
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Like the moon her kindness is, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| If kindness I may call | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| What has no comprehension in’t, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| But is the same for all | 6 | ······ |
| As though my sorrow were a scene | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Upon a painted wall. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| So like a bit of stone I lie | 8 | ········ |
| Under a broken tree. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I could recover if I shrieked | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| My heart’s agony | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| To passing bird, but I am dumb | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| From human dignity. | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
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.