The Girl
I rage at my own image in the glass,That’s so unlike myself that when you praise itIt is as though you praised another, or evenMocked me with praise of my mere opposite;And when I wake towards morn I dread myselfFor the heart cries that what deception winsCruelty must keep; therefore be warned and goIf you have seen that image and not the woman.
If you are no more strength than I am beautyI had better find a convent and turn nun;A nun at least has all men’s reverenceAnd needs no cruelty.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Girl 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 Girl, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/the-girl.html, id L19978.
Form and metre
The Girl is 12 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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 -A-A---- glass · itA · even · oppositeA · myself · wins · go · woman
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I rage at my own image in the glass, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That’s so unlike myself that when you praise it | 11 | ··˘/·/····· |
| It is as though you praised another, or even | 11 | ······˘/˘·/ |
| Mocked me with praise of my mere opposite; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And when I wake towards morn I dread myself | 10 | ·········/ |
| For the heart cries that what deception wins | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Cruelty must keep; therefore be warned and go | 10 | /˘········ |
| If you have seen that image and not the woman. | 12 | ·····/˘···/˘ |
| If you are no more strength than I am beauty | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| I had better find a convent and turn nun; | 11 | ··/˘··/˘··· |
| A nun at least has all men’s reverence | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And needs no cruelty. | 5 | ···/˘ |
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.