Her Praise
She is foremost of those that I would hear praised.I have gone about the house, gone up and downAs a man does who has published a new bookOr a young girl dressed out in her new gown,And though I have turned the talk by hook or crookUntil her praise should be the uppermost theme,A woman spoke of some new tale she had read,A man confusedly in a half dreamAs though some other name ran in his head.She is foremost of those that I would hear praised.I will talk no more of books or the long warBut walk by the dry thorn until I have foundSome beggar sheltering from the wind, and thereManage the talk until her name come round.If there be rags enough he will know her nameAnd be well pleased remembering it, for in the old days,Though she had young men's praise and old men's blame,Among the poor both old and young gave her praise.
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Her Praise 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 Praise, in The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32491, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wild-swans/her-praise.html, id L20016.
Form and metre
Her Praise is 18 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%).
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 ABCBCDEDEA-F-FGHGH praisedA · downB · bookC · gownB · crookC · themeD · readE · dreamD · headE · praisedA · war · foundF · there · roundF · nameG · daysH · blameG · praiseH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| She is foremost of those that I would hear praised. | 11 | ··/········ |
| I have gone about the house, gone up and down | 11 | ··········· |
| As a man does who has published a new book | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Or a young girl dressed out in her new gown, | 10 | ·········· |
| And though I have turned the talk by hook or crook | 11 | ··········· |
| Until her praise should be the uppermost theme, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| A woman spoke of some new tale she had read, | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| A man confusedly in a half dream | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| As though some other name ran in his head. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| She is foremost of those that I would hear praised. | 11 | ··/········ |
| I will talk no more of books or the long war | 11 | ··········· |
| But walk by the dry thorn until I have found | 11 | ··········· |
| Some beggar sheltering from the wind, and there | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Manage the talk until her name come round. | 10 | /˘········ |
| If there be rags enough he will know her name | 11 | ····˘/····· |
| And be well pleased remembering it, for in the old days, | 13 | ····˘/˘······ |
| Though she had young men's praise and old men's blame, | 10 | ·········· |
| Among the poor both old and young gave her praise. | 11 | ··········· |
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.