Solomon to Sheba
Sang Solomon to Sheba,And kissed her dusky face,'All day long from mid-dayWe have talked in the one place,All day long from shadowless noonWe have gone round and roundIn the narrow theme of loveLike an old horse in a pound.'
To Solomon sang Sheba,Planted on his knees,'If you had broached a matterThat might the learned please,You had before the sun had thrownOur shadows on the groundDiscovered that my thoughts, not it,Are but a narrow pound.'
Sang Solomon to Sheba,And kissed her Arab eyes,'There's not a man or womanBorn under the skiesDare match in learning with us two,And all day long we have foundThere's not a thing but love can makeThe world a narrow pound.'
Words in this poem
- solomon n.
- One of the kings of Israel, noted for his superior wisdom and magnificent reign; hence, a very wise man.
- shadowless a.
- Having no shadow.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Solomon to Sheba 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, Solomon to Sheba, in The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32491, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wild-swans/solomon-to-sheba.html, id L20004.
Form and metre
Solomon to Sheba is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 -A-A-B-B sheba · faceA · day · placeA · noon · roundB · love · poundB
- 2 -A-A-B-B sheba · kneesA · matter · pleaseA · thrown · groundB · it · poundB
- 3 -A-A-B-B sheba · eyesA · woman · skiesA · two · foundB · make · poundB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sang Solomon to Sheba, | 7 | ·/˘˘·/˘ |
| And kissed her dusky face, | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| 'All day long from mid-day | 6 | ······ |
| We have talked in the one place, | 7 | ······· |
| All day long from shadowless noon | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| We have gone round and round | 6 | ······ |
| In the narrow theme of love | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Like an old horse in a pound.' | 7 | ······· |
| To Solomon sang Sheba, | 7 | ·/˘˘·/˘ |
| Planted on his knees, | 5 | /˘··· |
| 'If you had broached a matter | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That might the learned please, | 6 | ····˘· |
| You had before the sun had thrown | 8 | ········ |
| Our shadows on the ground | 7 | /˘/···· |
| Discovered that my thoughts, not it, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Are but a narrow pound.' | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Sang Solomon to Sheba, | 7 | ·/˘˘·/˘ |
| And kissed her Arab eyes, | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| 'There's not a man or woman | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Born under the skies | 5 | ····· |
| Dare match in learning with us two, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And all day long we have found | 7 | ······· |
| There's not a thing but love can make | 8 | ········ |
| The world a narrow pound.' | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.