Michael Robartes Bids His Beloved Be at Peace
I hear the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake,Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white;The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night,The East her hidden joy before the morning break,The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away,The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire:O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire,The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay:Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beatOver my heart, and your hair fall over my breast,Drowning love's lonely hour in deep twilight of rest,And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet.
Words in this poem
- disaster n.
- An unpropitious or baleful aspect of a planet or star; malevolent influence of a heavenly body; hence, an ill portent. [F. désastre; pref. dés- (L. dis-) + astre star, fr. L. astrum; a word of astrological origin. See Aster, Astral, Star.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Michael Robartes Bids His Beloved Be at Peace 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, Michael Robartes Bids His Beloved Be at Peace, in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32233, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wind-among-reeds/michael-robartes-bids-his-beloved-be-at-peace.html, id L04527.
Form and metre
Michael Robartes Bids His Beloved Be at Peace is 12 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 74%). 79% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.8 syllables. 8% 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 ABBACDDCEFFE shakeA · whiteB · nightB · breakA · awayC · fireD · desireD · clayC · beatE · breastF · restF · feetE
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 hear the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake, | 12 | ···/˘/˘····· |
| Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white; | 12 | ··/˘·/˘··/˘· |
| The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night, | 12 | ··˘/···/˘/˘· |
| The East her hidden joy before the morning break, | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away, | 12 | ········/˘˘/ |
| The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire: | 12 | ···/˘·/˘·/˘/ |
| O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘˘/ |
| The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay: | 13 | ·/˘·˘/˘···/˘· |
| Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat | 11 | ˘/········· |
| Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast, | 10 | ·········· |
| Drowning love's lonely hour in deep twilight of rest, | 12 | /˘·/˘/··/··· |
| And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet. | 13 | ·/˘·/˘····/˘· |
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.