The Fool by the Roadside
When my days that haveFrom cradle run to graveFrom grave to cradle run instead;When thoughts that a foolHas wound upon a spoolAre but loose thread, are but loose thread.
When cradle and spool are pastAnd I mere shade at lastCoagulate of stuffTransparent like the wind,I think that I may findA faithful love, a faithful love.
About this text
The Fool by the Roadside 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 Fool by the Roadside, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/the-fool-by-the-roadside.html, id L19979.
Form and metre
The Fool by the Roadside is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AABCCB haveA · graveA · insteadB · foolC · spoolC · threadB
- 2 AA-BB- pastA · lastA · stuff · windB · findB · love
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When my days that have | 5 | ····· |
| From cradle run to grave | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| From grave to cradle run instead; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| When thoughts that a fool | 5 | ····· |
| Has wound upon a spool | 6 | ······ |
| Are but loose thread, are but loose thread. | 8 | ········ |
| When cradle and spool are past | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And I mere shade at last | 6 | ······ |
| Coagulate of stuff | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| Transparent like the wind, | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| I think that I may find | 6 | ······ |
| A faithful love, a faithful love. | 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.