Aedh Tells of a Valley Full of Lovers
I dreamed that I stood in a valley, and amid sighs,For happy lovers passed two by two where I stood;And I dreamed my lost love came stealthily out of the woodWith her cloud-pale eyelids falling on dream-dimmed eyes:I cried in my dream 'O women bid the young men lay'Their heads on your knees, and drown their eyes with your hair,'Or remembering hers they will find no other face fair'Till all the valleys of the world have been withered away.'
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]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Aedh Tells of a Valley Full of Lovers 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 Tells of a Valley Full of Lovers, in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32233, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wind-among-reeds/aedh-tells-of-a-valley-full-of-lovers.html, id L04536.
Form and metre
Aedh Tells of a Valley Full of Lovers is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.9 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 ABBACDDC sighsA · stoodB · woodB · eyesA · layC · hairD · fairD · awayC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I dreamed that I stood in a valley, and amid sighs, | 13 | ·······/˘·˘/· |
| For happy lovers passed two by two where I stood; | 12 | ·/˘/˘······· |
| And I dreamed my lost love came stealthily out of the wood | 14 | ·······/˘˘···· |
| With her cloud-pale eyelids falling on dream-dimmed eyes: | 12 | ····/·/˘···· |
| I cried in my dream 'O women bid the young men lay | 13 | ······/˘····· |
| 'Their heads on your knees, and drown their eyes with your hair, | 12 | ············ |
| 'Or remembering hers they will find no other face fair | 13 | ·˘/˘·····/˘·· |
| 'Till all the valleys of the world have been withered away.' | 14 | ···/˘·····/˘˘/ |
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.