My Descendants
Having inherited a vigorous mindFrom my old fathers I must nourish dreamsAnd leave a woman and a man behindAs vigorous of mind, and yet it seemsLife scarce can cast a fragrance on the wind,Scarce spread a glory to the morning beams,But the torn petals strew the garden plot;And there’s but common greenness after that.
And what if my descendants lose the flowerThrough natural declension of the soul,Through too much business with the passing hour,Through too much play, or marriage with a fool?May this laborious stair and this stark towerBecome a roofless ruin that the owlMay build in the cracked masonry and cryHer desolation to the desolate sky.
The Primum Mobile that fashioned usHas made the very owls in circles move;And I, that count myself most prosperous,Seeing that love and friendship are enough,For an old neighbour’s friendship chose the houseAnd decked and altered it for a girl’s love,And know whatever flourish and declineThese stones remain their monument and mine.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- roofless a.
- Having no roof; as, a roofless house.
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
- desolation n.
- The act of desolating or laying waste; destruction of inhabitants; depopulation. [F. désolation, L. desolatio.]
- neighbour v. i.
- To dwell in the vicinity; to be a neighbor, or in the neighborhood; to be near.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My Descendants 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, My Descendants, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/my-descendants.html, id L19963.
Form and metre
My Descendants is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 ABABAB-- mindA · dreamsB · behindA · seemsB · windA · beamsB · plot · that
- 2 A-A-A-BB flowerA · soul · hourA · fool · towerA · owl · cryB · skyB
- 3 ABA-ABCC usA · moveB · prosperousA · enough · houseA · loveB · declineC · mineC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Having inherited a vigorous mind | 10 | /˘˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| From my old fathers I must nourish dreams | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And leave a woman and a man behind | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| As vigorous of mind, and yet it seems | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Life scarce can cast a fragrance on the wind, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Scarce spread a glory to the morning beams, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But the torn petals strew the garden plot; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And there’s but common greenness after that. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And what if my descendants lose the flower | 11 | ····˘/˘··/˘ |
| Through natural declension of the soul, | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/˘··· |
| Through too much business with the passing hour, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Through too much play, or marriage with a fool? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| May this laborious stair and this stark tower | 10 | ··˘/˘····/ |
| Become a roofless ruin that the owl | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| May build in the cracked masonry and cry | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Her desolation to the desolate sky. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| The Primum Mobile that fashioned us | 10 | ···/˘·/˘˘· |
| Has made the very owls in circles move; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And I, that count myself most prosperous, | 10 | ·····/·/˘˘ |
| Seeing that love and friendship are enough, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| For an old neighbour’s friendship chose the house | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And decked and altered it for a girl’s love, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And know whatever flourish and decline | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| These stones remain their monument and mine. | 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.