Aedh Pleads with the Elemental Powers
The Powers whose name and shape no living creature knowsHave pulled the Immortal Rose;And though the Seven Lights bowed in their dance and wept,The Polar Dragon slept,His heavy rings uncoiled from glimmering deep to deep:When will he wake from sleep?
Great Powers of falling wave and wind and windy fire,With your harmonious choirEncircle her I love and sing her into peace,That my old care may cease;Unfold your flaming wings and cover out of sightThe nets of day and night.
Dim Powers of drowsy thought, let her no longer beLike the pale cup of the sea,When winds have gathered and sun and moon burned dimAbove its cloudy rim;But let a gentle silence wrought with music flowWhither her footsteps go.
Words in this poem
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Aedh Pleads with the Elemental Powers is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Wind Among the Reeds, Project Gutenberg ebook #32233; 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, Aedh Pleads with the Elemental Powers, in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32233, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wind-among-reeds/aedh-pleads-with-the-elemental-powers.html, id L04546.
Form and metre
Aedh Pleads with the Elemental Powers is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABBCC knowsA · roseA · weptB · sleptB · deepC · sleepC
- 2 AABBCC fireA · choirA · peaceB · ceaseB · sightC · nightC
- 3 AABBCC beA · seaA · dimB · rimB · flowC · goC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The Powers whose name and shape no living creature knows | 12 | ·/·····/˘/˘· |
| Have pulled the Immortal Rose; | 8 | ··˘·˘/˘· |
| And though the Seven Lights bowed in their dance and wept, | 11 | ···/······· |
| The Polar Dragon slept, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| His heavy rings uncoiled from glimmering deep to deep: | 12 | ·/˘··/·/˘··· |
| When will he wake from sleep? | 6 | ······ |
| Great Powers of falling wave and wind and windy fire, | 12 | ·/·/˘····/˘/ |
| With your harmonious choir | 8 | ··˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Encircle her I love and sing her into peace, | 12 | ˘/˘········· |
| That my old care may cease; | 6 | ······ |
| Unfold your flaming wings and cover out of sight | 12 | ˘/·/˘··/˘··· |
| The nets of day and night. | 6 | ······ |
| Dim Powers of drowsy thought, let her no longer be | 12 | ·/·/˘····/˘· |
| Like the pale cup of the sea, | 7 | ······· |
| When winds have gathered and sun and moon burned dim | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Above its cloudy rim; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But let a gentle silence wrought with music flow | 12 | ···/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Whither her footsteps go. | 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.