My House
An ancient bridge, and a more ancient tower,A farmhouse that is sheltered by its wall,An acre of stony ground,Where the symbolic rose can break in flower,Old ragged elms, old thorns innumerable,The sound of the rain or soundOf every wind that blows;The stilted water-henCrossing stream againScared by the splashing of a dozen cows;
A winding stair, a chamber arched with stone,A grey stone fireplace with an open hearth,A candle and written page.‘Il Penseroso’s’ Platonist toiled onIn some like chamber, shadowing forthHow the daemonic rageImagined everything.Benighted travellersFrom markets and from fairsHave seen his midnight candle glimmering.
Two men have founded here. A man-at-armsGathered a score of horse and spent his daysIn this tumultuous spot,Where through long wars and sudden night alarmsHis dwindling score and he seemed cast-a-waysForgetting and forgot;And I, that after meMy bodily heirs may find,To exalt a lonely mind,Befitting emblems of adversity.
Words in this poem
- farmhouse n.
- A dwelling house on a farm; a farmer's residence.
- acre n.
- Any field of arable or pasture land. [OE. aker, AS. æcer; akin to OS. accar, OHG. achar, Ger. acker, Icel. akr, Sw. åker, Dan. ager, Goth. akrs, L. ager, Gr. ajra. *2, 206.]
- platonist n.
- One who adheres to the philosophy of Plato; a follower of Plato. Hammond.
- shadowing n.
- Shade, or gradation of light and color; shading. Feltham.
- adversity n.
- Opposition; contrariety. Wyclif. [OE. adversite, F. adversité, fr. L. adversitas.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My House 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 House, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/my-house.html, id L19961.
Form and metre
My House is 30 lines in 3 stanzas of 10 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABCABC-DD- towerA · wallB · groundC · flowerA · innumerableB · soundC · blows · henD · againD · cows
- 2 --A--AB--B stone · hearth · pageA · on · forth · rageA · everythingB · travellers · fairs · glimmeringB
- 3 ABCABC-DD- armsA · daysB · spotC · alarmsA · waysB · forgotC · me · findD · mindD · adversity
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An ancient bridge, and a more ancient tower, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| A farmhouse that is sheltered by its wall, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| An acre of stony ground, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Where the symbolic rose can break in flower, | 11 | ··˘/˘····/˘ |
| Old ragged elms, old thorns innumerable, | 11 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘˘ |
| The sound of the rain or sound | 7 | ······· |
| Of every wind that blows; | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| The stilted water-hen | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Crossing stream again | 5 | /˘·˘/ |
| Scared by the splashing of a dozen cows; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A winding stair, a chamber arched with stone, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| A grey stone fireplace with an open hearth, | 11 | ···/˘···/˘· |
| A candle and written page. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| ‘Il Penseroso’s’ Platonist toiled on | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| In some like chamber, shadowing forth | 9 | ···/˘/˘˘· |
| How the daemonic rage | 6 | ······ |
| Imagined everything. | 6 | ˘/˘/˘· |
| Benighted travellers | 6 | ˘/˘/˘˘ |
| From markets and from fairs | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Have seen his midnight candle glimmering. | 10 | ···/·/˘/˘˘ |
| Two men have founded here. A man-at-arms | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Gathered a score of horse and spent his days | 10 | /˘········ |
| In this tumultuous spot, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Where through long wars and sudden night alarms | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| His dwindling score and he seemed cast-a-ways | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Forgetting and forgot; | 6 | ˘/˘·˘/ |
| And I, that after me | 6 | ······ |
| My bodily heirs may find, | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| To exalt a lonely mind, | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Befitting emblems of adversity. | 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.