The Hosting of the Sidhe
The host is riding from KnocknareaAnd over the grave of Clooth-na-bare;Caolte tossing his burning hairAnd Niamh calling Away, come away:Empty your heart of its mortal dream.The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round,Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound,Our breasts are heaving, our eyes are a-gleam,Our arms are waving, our lips are apart;And if any gaze on our rushing band,We come between him and the deed of his hand,We come between him and the hope of his heart.The host is rushing 'twixt night and day,And where is there hope or deed as fair?Caolte tossing his burning hair,And Niamh calling Away, come away.
About this text
The Hosting of the Sidhe 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, The Hosting of the Sidhe, in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32233, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wind-among-reeds/the-hosting-of-the-sidhe.html, id L04513.
Form and metre
The Hosting of the Sidhe is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%). 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 -AABCDDCEFFEBAAB knocknarea · bareA · hairA · awayB · dreamC · roundD · unboundD · gleamC · apartE · bandF · handF · heartE · dayB · fairA · hairA · awayB
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 trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The host is riding from Knocknarea | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And over the grave of Clooth-na-bare; | 8 | ········ |
| Caolte tossing his burning hair | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| And Niamh calling Away, come away: | 9 | ··/˘˘/·˘/ |
| Empty your heart of its mortal dream. | 9 | /˘····/˘· |
| The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round, | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound, | 9 | /···/··˘/ |
| Our breasts are heaving, our eyes are a-gleam, | 10 | /··/˘/···· |
| Our arms are waving, our lips are apart; | 10 | /··/˘/··˘/ |
| And if any gaze on our rushing band, | 10 | ··/˘··//˘· |
| We come between him and the deed of his hand, | 11 | ··········· |
| We come between him and the hope of his heart. | 11 | ··········· |
| The host is rushing 'twixt night and day, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And where is there hope or deed as fair? | 9 | ········· |
| Caolte tossing his burning hair, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| And Niamh calling Away, come away. | 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.