Poem I
What shall I do with this absurdity--O heart, O troubled heart--this caricature,Decrepit age that has been tied to meAs to a dog’s tail?Never had I moreExcited, passionate, fantasticalImagination, nor an ear and eyeThat more expected the impossible--No, not in boyhood when with rod and fly,Or the humbler worm, I climbed Ben Bulben’s backAnd had the livelong summer day to spend.It seems that I must bid the Muse go pack,Choose Plato and Plotinus for a friendUntil imagination, ear and eye,Can be content with argument and dealIn abstract things; or be derided byA sort of battered kettle at the heel.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- caricature n.
- An exaggeration, or distortion by exaggeration, of parts or characteristics, as in a picture. [It. caricatura, fr. caricare to charge, overload, exaggerate. See Charge, v. t.]
- decrepit a.
- Broken down with age; wasted and enfeebled by the infirmities of old age; feeble; worn out. [L. decrepitus, perhaps orig., noised out, noiseless, applied to old people, who creep about quietly; de- + crepare to make a noise, rattle: cf. F. décrépit. See]
- fantastical a.
- Fanciful; unreal; whimsical; capricious; fantastic.
- boyhood n.
- The state of being a boy; the time during which one is a boy. [Boy + -hood.]
- humbler n.
- One who, or that which, humbles some one.
- livelong a.
- Whole; entire; long in passing; -- used of time, as day or night, in adverbial phrases, and usually with a sense of tediousness. [For lifelong. Cf. Lifelong.]
- kettle n.
- A metallic vessel, with a wide mouth, often without a cover, used for heating and boiling water or other liguids. Kettle pins, ninepins; skittles. Shelton. [OE. ketel; cf. AS. cetel, cetil, cytel; akin to D. kjedel, G. kessel, OHG. chezzil, Icel. ketill, SW. kittel, Dan. kjedel, Goth. katils; all perh. fr. L. catill]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poem I 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, Poem I, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/poem-i.html, id L19957.
Form and metre
Poem I is 17 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 --AB--ABACDCDAEAE absurdity · caricature · meA · tailB · more · fantastical · eyeA · impossibleB · flyA · backC · spendD · packC · friendD · eyeA · dealE · byA · heelE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What shall I do with this absurdity-- | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| O heart, O troubled heart--this caricature, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘˘˘ |
| Decrepit age that has been tied to me | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| As to a dog’s tail? | 5 | ····· |
| Never had I more | 5 | /˘··· |
| Excited, passionate, fantastical | 10 | ˘/˘/˘˘˘/˘˘ |
| Imagination, nor an ear and eye | 10 | ˘·˘/˘····· |
| That more expected the impossible-- | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| No, not in boyhood when with rod and fly, | 10 | ···/······ |
| Or the humbler worm, I climbed Ben Bulben’s back | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| And had the livelong summer day to spend. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| It seems that I must bid the Muse go pack, | 10 | ·········· |
| Choose Plato and Plotinus for a friend | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Until imagination, ear and eye, | 10 | ··˘·˘/˘··· |
| Can be content with argument and deal | 10 | ··˘/·/˘˘·· |
| In abstract things; or be derided by | 10 | ·/····˘/˘· |
| A sort of battered kettle at the heel. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
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