A Prayer on Going into My House
God grant a blessing on this tower and cottageAnd on my heirs, if all remain unspoiled,No table, or chair or stool not simple enoughFor shepherd lads in Galilee; and grantThat I myself for portions of the yearMay handle nothing and set eyes on nothingBut what the great and passionate have usedThroughout so many varying centuries.We take it for the norm; yet should I dreamSinbad the sailor's brought a painted chest,Or image, from beyond the Loadstone MountainThat dream is a norm; and should some limb of the devilDestroy the view by cutting down an ashThat shades the road, or setting up a cottagePlanned in a government office, shorten his life,Manacle his soul upon the Red Sea bottom.
Words in this poem
- loadstone n.
- A piece of magnetic iron ore possessing polarity like a magnetic needle. See Magnetite. [Load, lode + stone.]
- manacle n.
- A handcuff; a shackle for the hand or wrist; -- usually in the plural. [OE. manicle, OF. manicle, F. manicle sort glove, manacle, L. manicula a little hand, dim. of manus hand; cf. L. manica sleeve, manacle, fr.manus. See Manual.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Prayer on Going into My House is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Wild Swans at Coole, Project Gutenberg ebook #32491; 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, A Prayer on Going into My House, in The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32491, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wild-swans/a-prayer-on-going-into-my-house.html, id L20034.
Form and metre
A Prayer on Going into My House is 16 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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-- cottageA · unspoiled · enough · grant · year · nothing · used · centuries · dream · chest · mountain · devil · ash · cottageA · life · bottom
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 |
|---|---|---|
| God grant a blessing on this tower and cottage | 11 | ···/˘··/·/˘ |
| And on my heirs, if all remain unspoiled, | 10 | ······˘/˘/ |
| No table, or chair or stool not simple enough | 12 | ·/˘·····/˘˘/ |
| For shepherd lads in Galilee; and grant | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That I myself for portions of the year | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| May handle nothing and set eyes on nothing | 11 | ·/˘/˘····/˘ |
| But what the great and passionate have used | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Throughout so many varying centuries. | 11 | ···/˘/˘˘/˘˘ |
| We take it for the norm; yet should I dream | 10 | ·········· |
| Sinbad the sailor's brought a painted chest, | 10 | /··/˘··/˘· |
| Or image, from beyond the Loadstone Mountain | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| That dream is a norm; and should some limb of the devil | 12 | ···········/ |
| Destroy the view by cutting down an ash | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| That shades the road, or setting up a cottage | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Planned in a government office, shorten his life, | 11 | ···/˘/˘/˘·· |
| Manacle his soul upon the Red Sea bottom. | 12 | /˘˘·······/˘ |
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.