Wisdom
The true faith discovered wasWhen painted panel, statuary,Glass-mosaic, window-glass,Straightened all that went awryWhen some peasant gospellerImagined Him upon the floorOf a working-carpenter.Miracle had its playtime whereIn damask clothed and on a seat,Chryselephantine, cedar boarded,His majestic Mother satStitching at a purple hoarded,That He might be nobly breeched,In starry towers of BabylonNoah’s freshet never reached.King Abundance got Him onInnocence; and Wisdom He.That cognomen sounded bestConsidering what wild infancyDrove horror from His Mother’s breast.
Words in this poem
- statuary n.
- One who practices the art of making statues. [L. statuarius, n., fr. statuarius, a., of or belonging to statues, fr. statua statue: cf. F. statuaire. See Statue.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- playtime n.
- Time for play or diversion.
- chryselephantine a.
- Composed of, or adorned with, gold and ivory.
- nobly adv.
- Of noble extraction; as, nobly born or descended.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- freshet n.
- A stream of fresh water. [OE. fresche flood + -et. See Fresh, a.]
- cognomen n.
- The last of the three names of a person among the ancient Romans, denoting his house or family. [L.: co- + (g)nomen name.]
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wisdom 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, Wisdom, in The Tower (1928), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #72985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-tower/wisdom.html, id L19974.
Form and metre
Wisdom is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ---------A-A-B-B-C-C was · statuary · glass · awry · gospeller · floor · carpenter · where · seat · boardedA · sat · hoardedA · breeched · babylonB · reached · onB · he · bestC · infancy · breastC
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The true faith discovered was | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| When painted panel, statuary, | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘ |
| Glass-mosaic, window-glass, | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Straightened all that went awry | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| When some peasant gospeller | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Imagined Him upon the floor | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Of a working-carpenter. | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Miracle had its playtime where | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| In damask clothed and on a seat, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Chryselephantine, cedar boarded, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| His majestic Mother sat | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Stitching at a purple hoarded, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| That He might be nobly breeched, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| In starry towers of Babylon | 8 | ·/˘/·/˘· |
| Noah’s freshet never reached. | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| King Abundance got Him on | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Innocence; and Wisdom He. | 7 | /˘˘·/˘· |
| That cognomen sounded best | 7 | ·˘/˘/˘· |
| Considering what wild infancy | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| Drove horror from His Mother’s breast. | 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.