Her Courage
When her soul flies to the predestined dancing-place(I have no speech but symbol, the pagan speech I madeAmid the dreams of youth) let her come face to face,While wondering still to be a shade, with Grania's shadeAll but the perils of the woodland flight forgotThat made her Dermuid dear, and some old cardinalPacing with half-closed eyelids in a sunny spotWho had murmured of Giorgione at his latest breath--Aye and Achilles, Timor, Babar, Barhaim, allWho have lived in joy and laughed into the face of Death.
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Her Courage 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, Her Courage, in The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32491, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wild-swans/her-courage.html, id L20032.
Form and metre
Her Courage is 10 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCEDE. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 ABABCDCEDE placeA · madeB · faceA · shadeB · forgotC · cardinalD · spotC · breathE · allD · deathE
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When her soul flies to the predestined dancing-place | 12 | ·······/˘/˘· |
| (I have no speech but symbol, the pagan speech I made | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘··· |
| Amid the dreams of youth) let her come face to face, | 12 | ˘/·········· |
| While wondering still to be a shade, with Grania's shade | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| All but the perils of the woodland flight forgot | 12 | ···/˘··/··˘/ |
| That made her Dermuid dear, and some old cardinal | 12 | ·········/˘˘ |
| Pacing with half-closed eyelids in a sunny spot | 12 | /˘···/···/˘· |
| Who had murmured of Giorgione at his latest breath-- | 12 | ··/˘·····/˘· |
| Aye and Achilles, Timor, Babar, Barhaim, all | 12 | ··˘/˘˘/·/··· |
| Who have lived in joy and laughed into the face of Death. | 13 | ············· |
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.