The Dying Swan
O silver-throated SwanStruck, struck! A golden dartClean through thy breast has goneHome to thy heart.Thrill, thrill, O silver throat!O silver trumpet, pourLove for defiance backOn him who smote!And brim, brim o’erWith love; and ruby-dye thy trackDown thy last living reachOf river, sail the golden light--Enter the sun’s heart--even teach,O wondrous-gifted pain, teach thouThe God to love, let him learn how!
About this text
The Dying Swan 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, The Dying Swan, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/the-dying-swan.html, id L19996.
Form and metre
The Dying Swan is 15 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABC-DC-DE-EFF swanA · dartB · goneA · heartB · throatC · pour · backD · smoteC · o'er · trackD · reachE · light · teachE · thouF · howF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O silver-throated Swan | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Struck, struck! A golden dart | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Clean through thy breast has gone | 6 | ······ |
| Home to thy heart. | 4 | ···· |
| Thrill, thrill, O silver throat! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| O silver trumpet, pour | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Love for defiance back | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| On him who smote! | 4 | ···· |
| And brim, brim o’er | 4 | ···· |
| With love; and ruby-dye thy track | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Down thy last living reach | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Of river, sail the golden light-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Enter the sun’s heart--even teach, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| O wondrous-gifted pain, teach thou | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The God to love, let him learn how! | 8 | ········ |
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.