Two Songs from a Play I
I saw a staring virgin standWhere holy Dionysus died,And tear the heart out of his side,And lay the heart upon her handAnd bear that beating heart away;And then did all the Muses singOf Magnus Annus at the spring,As though God’s death were but a play.
Another Troy must rise and set,Another lineage feed the crow,Another Argo’s painted prowDrive to a flashier bauble yet.The Roman Empire stood appalled:It dropped the reins of peace and warWhen that fierce virgin and her StarOut of the fabulous darkness called.
Words in this poem
- bauble n.
- A trifling piece of finery; a gewgaw; that which is gay and showy without real value; a cheap, showy plaything. [Cf. OF. baubel a child's plaything, F. babiole, It. babbola, LL. baubellum gem, jewel, L. babulus,a baburrus, foolish.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Two Songs from a Play I 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, Two Songs from a Play I, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/two-songs-from-a-play-i.html, id L19972.
Form and metre
Two Songs from a Play I is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABBACDDC standA · diedB · sideB · handA · awayC · singD · springD · playC
- 2 A--AB--B setA · crow · prow · yetA · appalledB · war · star · calledB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I saw a staring virgin stand | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Where holy Dionysus died, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And tear the heart out of his side, | 8 | ········ |
| And lay the heart upon her hand | 8 | ········ |
| And bear that beating heart away; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And then did all the Muses sing | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of Magnus Annus at the spring, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| As though God’s death were but a play. | 8 | ········ |
| Another Troy must rise and set, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Another lineage feed the crow, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| Another Argo’s painted prow | 8 | ˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Drive to a flashier bauble yet. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The Roman Empire stood appalled: | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| It dropped the reins of peace and war | 8 | ········ |
| When that fierce virgin and her Star | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Out of the fabulous darkness called. | 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.