The Double Vision of Michael Robartes II
On the grey rock of Cashel I suddenly sawA Sphinx with woman breast and lion paw,A Buddha, hand at rest,Hand lifted up that blest;
And right between these two a girl at playThat it may be had danced her life away,For now being dead it seemedThat she of dancing dreamed.
Although I saw it all in the mind's eyeThere can be nothing solider till I die;I saw by the moon's lightNow at its fifteenth night.
One lashed her tail; her eyes lit by the moonGazed upon all things known, all things unknown,In triumph of intellectWith motionless head erect.
That other's moonlit eyeballs never moved,Being fixed on all things loved, all things unloved,Yet little peace he hadFor those that love are sad.
Oh, little did they care who danced between,And little she by whom her dance was seenSo that she danced. No thought,Body perfection brought,
For what but eye and ear silence the mindWith the minute particulars of mankind?Mind moved yet seemed to stopAs 'twere a spinning-top.
In contemplation had those three so wroughtUpon a moment, and so stretched it outThat they, time overthrown,Were dead yet flesh and bone.
Words in this poem
- moonlit a.
- Illumined by the moon.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Double Vision of Michael Robartes II 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, The Double Vision of Michael Robartes II, in The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32491, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wild-swans/the-double-vision-of-michael-robartes-ii.html, id L20041.
Form and metre
The Double Vision of Michael Robartes II is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 5 of its 8 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABB sawA · pawA · restB · blestB
- 2 AABB playA · awayA · seemedB · dreamedB
- 3 AABB eyeA · dieA · lightB · nightB
- 4 --AA moon · unknown · intellectA · erectA
- 5 --AA moved · unloved · hadA · sadA
- 6 AABB betweenA · seenA · thoughtB · broughtB
- 7 AABB mindA · mankindA · stopB · topB
- 8 --AA wrought · out · overthrownA · boneA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| On the grey rock of Cashel I suddenly saw | 11 | ········/˘· |
| A Sphinx with woman breast and lion paw, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A Buddha, hand at rest, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Hand lifted up that blest; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And right between these two a girl at play | 10 | ·········· |
| That it may be had danced her life away, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| For now being dead it seemed | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| That she of dancing dreamed. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Although I saw it all in the mind's eye | 10 | ·········· |
| There can be nothing solider till I die; | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| I saw by the moon's light | 6 | ······ |
| Now at its fifteenth night. | 6 | ···˘/· |
| One lashed her tail; her eyes lit by the moon | 10 | ·········· |
| Gazed upon all things known, all things unknown, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| In triumph of intellect | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| With motionless head erect. | 7 | ·/˘˘·˘/ |
| That other's moonlit eyeballs never moved, | 10 | ·/˘/·/·/˘· |
| Being fixed on all things loved, all things unloved, | 10 | /·······˘/ |
| Yet little peace he had | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| For those that love are sad. | 6 | ······ |
| Oh, little did they care who danced between, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And little she by whom her dance was seen | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| So that she danced. No thought, | 6 | ······ |
| Body perfection brought, | 6 | /˘˘/˘· |
| For what but eye and ear silence the mind | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| With the minute particulars of mankind? | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·// |
| Mind moved yet seemed to stop | 6 | ······ |
| As 'twere a spinning-top. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| In contemplation had those three so wrought | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Upon a moment, and so stretched it out | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That they, time overthrown, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Were dead yet flesh and bone. | 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.