The New Faces
If you, that have grown old, were the first dead,Neither catalpa tree nor scented limeShould hear my living feet, nor would I treadWhere we wrought that shall break the teeth of time.Let the new faces play what tricks they willIn the old rooms; night can outbalance day,Our shadows rove the garden gravel still,The living seem more shadowy than they.
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,]
- outbalance v. t.
- To outweight; to exceed in weight or effect.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The New Faces 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 New Faces, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/the-new-faces.html, id L19970.
Form and metre
The New Faces is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABABCDCD deadA · limeB · treadA · timeB · willC · dayD · stillC · theyD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If you, that have grown old, were the first dead, | 10 | ·········· |
| Neither catalpa tree nor scented lime | 10 | /˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| Should hear my living feet, nor would I tread | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Where we wrought that shall break the teeth of time. | 10 | ·········· |
| Let the new faces play what tricks they will | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In the old rooms; night can outbalance day, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Our shadows rove the garden gravel still, | 10 | //···/˘/˘· |
| The living seem more shadowy than they. | 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.