The Valley of the Black Pig
The dews drop slowly and dreams gather: unknown spearsSuddenly hurtle before my dream-awakened eyes,And then the clash of fallen horsemen and the criesOf unknown perishing armies beat about my ears.We who still labour by the cromlec on the shore,The grey cairn on the hill, when day sinks drowned in dew,Being weary of the world's empires, bow down to youMaster of the still stars and of the flaming door.
Words in this poem
- hurtle v. i.
- To meet with violence or shock; to clash; to jostle. [OE. hurtlen, freq. of hurten. See Hurt, v. t., and cf. Hurl.]
- cairn n.
- A rounded or conical heap of stones erected by early inhabitants of the British Isles, apparently as a sepulchral monument. [Gael. carn, gen. cairn, a heap: cf. Ir. & W. carn.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Valley of the Black Pig 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 Valley of the Black Pig, in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #32233, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/yeats-wind-among-reeds/the-valley-of-the-black-pig.html, id L04534.
Form and metre
The Valley of the Black Pig is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. 75% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.0 syllables. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 spearsA · eyesB · criesB · earsA · shoreC · dewD · youD · doorC
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The dews drop slowly and dreams gather: unknown spears | 12 | ···/˘··/˘˘/· |
| Suddenly hurtle before my dream-awakened eyes, | 12 | /˘/˘····˘/˘· |
| And then the clash of fallen horsemen and the cries | 12 | ·····/˘/˘··· |
| Of unknown perishing armies beat about my ears. | 12 | ·˘//˘/˘····· |
| We who still labour by the cromlec on the shore, | 12 | ···/········ |
| The grey cairn on the hill, when day sinks drowned in dew, | 12 | ············ |
| Being weary of the world's empires, bow down to you | 12 | //˘···/˘···· |
| Master of the still stars and of the flaming door. | 12 | /˘·······/˘· |
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.