Mongan Thinks of His Past Greatness
I have drunk ale from the Country of the YoungAnd weep because I know all things now:I have been a hazel tree and they hungThe Pilot Star and the Crooked PloughAmong my leaves in times out of mind:I became a rush that horses tread:I became a man, a hater of the wind,Knowing one, out of all things, alone, that his headWould not lie on the breast or his lips on the hairOf the woman that he loves, until he dies;Although the rushes and the fowl of the airCry of his love with their pitiful cries.
About this text
Mongan Thinks of His Past Greatness 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, Mongan Thinks of His Past Greatness, in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32233, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wind-among-reeds/mongan-thinks-of-his-past-greatness.html, id L04549.
Form and metre
Mongan Thinks of His Past Greatness is 12 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCDCDEFEF youngA · nowB · hungA · ploughB · mindC · treadD · windC · headD · hairE · diesF · airE · criesF
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I have drunk ale from the Country of the Young | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| And weep because I know all things now: | 9 | ········· |
| I have been a hazel tree and they hung | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| The Pilot Star and the Crooked Plough | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Among my leaves in times out of mind: | 9 | ········· |
| I became a rush that horses tread: | 9 | ·˘/···/˘· |
| I became a man, a hater of the wind, | 11 | ·˘/···/˘··· |
| Knowing one, out of all things, alone, that his head | 11 | /·····˘/··· |
| Would not lie on the breast or his lips on the hair | 12 | ············ |
| Of the woman that he loves, until he dies; | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Although the rushes and the fowl of the air | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Cry of his love with their pitiful cries. | 9 | ······/˘· |
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.