The Secrets of the Old
I have old women’s secrets nowThat had those of the young;Madge tells me what I dared not thinkWhen my blood was strong,And what had drowned a lover onceSounds like an old song.
Though Margery is stricken dumbIf thrown in Madge’s way,We three make up a solitude;For none alive to-dayCan know the stories that we knowOr say the things we say:
How such a man pleased women mostOf all that are gone,How such a pair loved many yearsAnd such a pair but one,Stories of the bed of strawOr the bed of down.
Words in this poem
- stricken p. p.
- Struck; smitten; wounded; as, the stricken deer.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Secrets of the Old 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 Secrets of the Old, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/the-secrets-of-the-old.html, id L19989.
Form and metre
The Secrets of the Old is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 ---A-A now · young · think · strongA · once · songA
- 2 -A-A-A dumb · wayA · solitude · dayA · know · sayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I have old women’s secrets now | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| That had those of the young; | 6 | ······ |
| Madge tells me what I dared not think | 8 | ········ |
| When my blood was strong, | 5 | ····· |
| And what had drowned a lover once | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Sounds like an old song. | 5 | ····· |
| Though Margery is stricken dumb | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| If thrown in Madge’s way, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| We three make up a solitude; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For none alive to-day | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Can know the stories that we know | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or say the things we say: | 6 | ······ |
| How such a man pleased women most | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of all that are gone, | 5 | ····· |
| How such a pair loved many years | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And such a pair but one, | 6 | ······ |
| Stories of the bed of straw | 7 | /˘····· |
| Or the bed of down. | 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.