A Song
I thought no more was neededYouth to prolongThan dumb-bell and foilTo keep the body young.Oh, who could have foretoldThat the heart grows old?
Though I have many words,What woman's satisfied,I am no longer faintBecause at her side?Oh, who could have foretoldThat the heart grows old?
I have not lost desireBut the heart that I had,I thought 'twould burn my bodyLaid on the death-bed.But who could have foretoldThat the heart grows old?
About this text
A Song 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 Song, in The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32491, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wild-swans/a-song.html, id L20006.
Form and metre
A Song is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ----AA needed · prolong · foil · young · foretoldA · oldA
- 2 -A-ABB words · satisfiedA · faint · sideA · foretoldB · oldB
- 3 ----AA desire · had · body · bed · foretoldA · oldA
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 thought no more was needed | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Youth to prolong | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Than dumb-bell and foil | 5 | ····· |
| To keep the body young. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Oh, who could have foretold | 6 | ····˘/ |
| That the heart grows old? | 5 | ····· |
| Though I have many words, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| What woman's satisfied, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| I am no longer faint | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Because at her side? | 5 | ····· |
| Oh, who could have foretold | 6 | ····˘/ |
| That the heart grows old? | 5 | ····· |
| I have not lost desire | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| But the heart that I had, | 6 | ······ |
| I thought 'twould burn my body | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Laid on the death-bed. | 5 | ····· |
| But who could have foretold | 6 | ····˘/ |
| That the heart grows old? | 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.