A Study of Rhythmic Structure in the Verse of William Butler Yeats [Reprint 2018 ed.] 9783110904932, 9789027925060

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DE P R O P R I E T A T I B U S L I T T E R A R U M edenda curat C. H. V A N S C H O O N E V E L D Indiana University

Series Practica,

38

A STUDY OF RHYTHMIC STRUCTURE IN THE VERSE OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

by

ADELYN DOUGHERTY

1973

MOUTON THE H A G U E

PARIS

© Copyright 1973 in The Netherlands Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers

Printed in The Netherlands by Zuid Nederlandsche Drukkerij N.V., 's-Hertogenbosch

CONTENTS

Introduction

7

I Preliminaries to Analysis The Text The Readings The Descriptive Frame The Order and Method of Analysis II The Metrical Form The Unit of General Cadence (Foot) The Line The Stanza and Verse Group III The Structures of Speech: The Rhythmic Group Patterns of Cadence Line Patterns IV The Structures of Speech: The Speech Unit

13 13 14 15 17 20 20 21 26 28 28 34 38

Conclusion

57

Appendix A: A Listing of the Texts Analyzed Appendix B: Readings of Lines for Analysis Appendix C: The Statistical Tables

61 67 91

Bibliography

129

Index

136

INTRODUCTION

"Style is almost unconscious. I know what I have tried to do, little what I have done." W. B. Yeats

Following the lead of Yeats himself, the critics of his poetry have regularly found it at least 'convenient', as Allt observed, to distinguish "the early style from the later style of Yeats, from the style, as it is called, of his maturity". 1 Indeed this tendency among Yeats' critics toward definition and division has been so marked that Eliot, speaking in 1940 to the Friends of the Irish Academy at the Abbey Theater in Dublin, could call it "almost a commonplace of criticism of his work". 2 Twenty-five years later the familiar distinction, no longer merely commonplace, had become in fact a critical cliché. The existing commentaries suggest, nevertheless, that it is easier to divide than to define. Though some few critics, Eliot among them, have set the dividing line between 'early' and 'late' at 1919, as T. R. Henn has well remarked, "the turning point, or watershed ... of Yeats' poetry is usually considered to be the period that produced the poems in Responsibilities" (1914).3 Complete and careful definition of the differences 1 G. D. P. Allt, "Yeats and the Revision of his Early Verse", Hermathena, LXIV (1944), 91. 2 T. S. Eliot, On Poetry and Poets (New York, 1957), 297. 3 T. R. Henn, The Lonely Tower (New York, 1952), 87. Thomas Parkinson, with Eliot, sets the dividing line between 'early' and 'late' at 1919: "There are in Yeats two complete careers. The first extends from his earliest work to the personalist and elegiac poems of The Wild Swans at Coole, which ... is certainly the ultimate expression of his early career." ( W. B. Yeats, the Later Poetry [Berkeley, 1964], 58.) Some commentators — Edmund Wilson perhaps the first among them — have introduced as further critical refinement a 'middle' period to bridge the gap between 'early' and 'late'. Ellmann, for example, writes: "Where the earlier verse had for foundation the reverie or dream, the middle verse has the 'wild thought' as the later verse would have a subtler mixture of gay abandon, the considered view and the nightmare." (The Identity of Yeats [New York, 1964], 98.)

8

INTRODUCTION

between the early and the later styles, however, has not yet been achieved. Interestingly, almost all the commentators have noted clear evidence of stylistic transition as early as 1900. Yeats himself, in the early letters to Katherine Tynan, set down perceptive criticism of what he was calling even then — in 1888 — his 'early' work: "I have noticed some things about my poetry that I did not know before, in this process of correction; for instance, that it is almost all a flight into fairyland from the real world, and a summons to flight."4 And again: "I am not very hopeful about the book [OisinJ. Somewhat inarticulate have I been, I fear. Something I had to say. Don't know that I have said it. All seems confused, incoherent, inarticulate." 5 "Nothing anywhere has clear outline. Everything is cloud and foam..." 6 Looking back in 1914 to this period of his career, Yeats wrote: "... when I had finished The Wanderings of Oisin, dissatisfied with its yellow and dull green, with all the overcharged colour inherited from the romantic movement, I deliberately reshaped my style, deliberately sought out an impression as of cold light and tumbling clouds." 7 Remarking with some distaste, in his own work as well as that of others of his generation, "the slight sentimental sensuality", the lingering "between spirit and sense",8 Yeats determined to abandon artifice and ornament, the tapestry-like quality that marked his verse;9 he would turn instead to "all that is simple, popular, traditional, 4

The Letters of W. B. Yeats, ed. Allan Wade (London, 1954), 63. Unless otherwise noted, all references to Yeats' letters will be to this edition, hereafter cited as Letters. 6 Letters, 84. 6 Letters, 88. 7 The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats (New York, 1958), 48. The references will be to this edition, hereafter cited as Autobiography. 8 Autobiography, 218. 9 In the late book Dramatis Personae, Yeats "deprecatingly referred" — the phrase is Ellmann's — to his early play The Countess Cathleen as a "piece of tapestry" (Autobiography, 297), and again in the same essay as "tapestry-like" (293). As Ellmann has pointed out, the word had earlier appeared "in a description of The Shadowy Waters (1899), where Yeats declared a few years after its publication, his 'endeavour was to create for a few people who love symbol, a play that will be more ritual than a play, and leave upon the mind an impression like that of tapestry where the forms only half-reveal themselves amid the shadowy folds ...' " (The Identity of Yeats, 21). The word tapestry (or its equivalent) has often served as a convenient tag for critics of the early verse. Among others, see, for example, David Daiches: "Having abandoned incantatory poetry and tapestry verse ..." (Poetry and the Modern World [Chicago, 1940], 161); Ellmann: "Yet while Yeats' early verse resembles the tapestry of the Pre-Raphaelites ..."; "Of the three major developments in his early verse, its Irish setting, its tapestry-like effects ..." (The Identity of Yeats, 23 and 38). Blackmur, perhaps adapting another of Yeats' own descriptions ("I made my song a coat / covered with embroideries") writes of "the embroidered brocade of his [Yeats'] early

INTRODUCTION

9

10

emotional". He had discovered the power of "vivid speech", of words that expressed "the actual thoughts of a man at a passionate moment of life". 11 In the late essay which he intended as a general introduction to a final collected edition of his work, Yeats repeated for the last time what he had begun to learn in the 1890's: "I tried to make the language of poetry coincide with that of passionate, normal speech. I wanted to write in whatever language comes most naturally when we soliloquise, as we do all day long, upon the events of our own lives ..," 1 2 The insistent repetition in the late letters to Dorothy Wellesley — "natural words in the natural order", "spoken words and spoken syntax", "verse direct and natural as spoken words" 13 — is, in effect, the final expression of what was clearly, as Ellmann points out, early advice: "In a letter to George Russell, probably written in 1898, he [Yeats] urges him to eliminate from his poem 'Carrowmare' the word 'ere', as being 'a conventional bit of poetic diction', and suggests changing two-lines because 'out of the natural order of the words'. " 1 4 Plainly, much of Yeats' poetry — whether 'early' or 'late' — reflects the qualities that he ascribes to it, and his critics have often been content to paraphrase or simply to repeat his observations, noting in the early verse "a dreamy sweetness", the "tapestry-like effects", the "wavering" rhythms, and in the later work the movement toward the real world in poems "spare, hard and sinewy",15 cast into the unmistakable accent of vivid, personal speech. Until the 1950's, however, the major critical studies were directed in general not to a more serious investigation of Yeats' poetic style, but rather to an exploration of the influences that

verse" (Language as Gesture [New York, 1953], 112), and Babette Deutsch observes that "his earliest lyrics ... embroider pre-Raphaelite flowers on the hem of Irish legendry ..." (Poetry in Our Time [New York, 1958], 254). 10 Autobiography, 247. 11 Autobiography, 68. 12 W. B. Yeats, Essay and Introductions (New York, 1961), 521. Hereafter cited as Essays. 13 Letters, 850, 845, and 870. 14 Richard Ellmann, Yeats: The Man and the Masks (New York, 1948), 151. 15 This phrase, that of F. R. Leavis (New Bearings in English Poetry [London, 1932], 42), is typical. Ellmann writes: "The new verse [after 1916] is more spare, the images are exactly delimited by the words, every shadow is removed" (Yeats: The Man and the Masks, 212); John Unterecker: "... a poetry founded on the lean eloquence of speech" (A Reader's Guide to William Butler Yeats [New York, 1959], 95); A. G. Stock: "Yeats began to write with a hard detachment which is exactly what was missing from the incense-clouded visions of The Wind Among the Reeds" (W. B. Yeats, His Poetry and Thought [Cambridge, 1961], 91).

10

INTRODUCTION

shaped his verse: Pre-Raphaelitism, the French symbolist movement, his experience of the theater, (what he called) "a miserable love affair" with Maud Gonne, his discovery of the metaphysical poets, the intimate contact with Ezra Pound and through him with Oriental drama, his involvement in Irish politics; above all, perhaps, Yeats' interest in the occult, which found expression after his marriage in the pseudo-philosophic 'system' expounded atlength in the successive editions of A Vision.16 More recently, the commentators have extended their critical attention to the inner structures of the poems as well; some among them, avoiding the temptation to describe, after the manner of Yeats himself, in metaphorical terms, have achieved suggestive beginnings toward a more complete stylistic definition of the differences between the early and the later poems — particularly in the areas of diction, imagery and symbol. 1 7 The occasional studies of Yeats' rhythms, however, have remained on the whole superficial and intuitive in character. 1 8 Perhaps because (again like Yeats) his critics sense that prosody is the most certain of their 16

Hall and Steinmann have included in their collection of critical essays The Permanence of Yeats (first published in 1950) a representative sample of such studies. The earlier of Ellmann's excellent book-length studies, Yeats: The Man and the Masks, a critical biography, is perhaps the best of these. 17 The first of Thomas Parkinson's two books on Yeats (W. B. Yeats, Self Critic: A Study of his Early Verse, 1951), Henn's The Lonely Tower (1952), and Ellmann's second study (The Identity of Yeats, 1954) concern themselves at length with questions of style and mark in this respect a new direction in Yeats scholarship. Josephine Miles has included a perceptive account of Yeats' diction in her study Eras and Modes in English Poetry (Berkeley, 1957), and among dissertations on Yeats three in particular —• Laura M. Franklin's "The Development of Yeats' Poetic Diction" (Northwestern University, 1956), Marilyn Denton's "The Form of Yeats' Lyric Poetry" (University of Wisconsin, 1957), and Sarah Helen Youngblood's "William Butler Yeats: The Mature Style" (University of Oklahoma, 1958) — explore in some detail various aspects of Yeats' poetic technique. 18 With the exception of Miss Youngblood (who has devoted a chapter of her thesis to Yeats' versification) and Mr. Parkinson, whose recent study, W. B. Yeats, the Later Poetry, includes a consideration of Yeats' "prosodic idiom", no one has attempted a thorough study of Yeats' rhythmic practice. Miss Youngblood, observing that "versification is without question the least discussed aspect of Yeats' work" (88), acknowledges herself a pioneer and emphasizes the tentative character of her remarks. Mr. Parkinson, on the contrary, has attempted a more complete description of the rhythmic structure. The final account, however, in which he locates Yeats as prosodist within the dual metrical tradition of syllable counting and stress prosodies — at times within the limits of a single poem — suggests a certain weakness in Parkinson's theory somewhat akin to Yeats' own. (Yeats, it will be remembered, had written in 1897 to Robert Bridges: "I too would much like to discuss with you questions of rhythm, for though I work very hard at my rhythm, I have but little science on the matter and as a result probably offend often. Without a consistent science it is difficult to distinguish between license and freedom" [Letters, 287].)

11

INTRODUCTION 19

instincts, it is still the subject of which we are most ignorant. To dispel this ignorance — at least in part — and to make possible a more complete and accurate stylistic definition, I propose to present in the following chapters a detailed description (based on a method of analysis defined in Chapter I) of the rhythmic structure of an extended sample of Yeats' verse. Such a study should provide an objective norm for the evaluation of existing descriptions of Yeats' versification and a clearer understanding of the nature of his stylistic development, an understanding that will assist, in turn, toward a more precise definition of 'periods' in Yeats' long career as poet.

19

In a letter to Edith Shackleton Head (August 10,1937), Yeats wrote: "You will see how bothered I am when I get to prosody — because it is the most certain of my instincts, it is the subject of which I am most ignorant." (Letters, 896.)

I PRELIMINARIES TO ANALYSIS

THE TEXT. In the definitive edition of his poems (London, 1949), Yeats retained a total of 11,345 lines of verse. The 3040 line sample — approximately 25 % of the total — which forms the basis of this study has been determined proportionately, that is, I have selected for analysis approximately 25 % of the total number of lines in each of the sixteen sections into which the final text is divided:

Section Title

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P

"The Wanderings of Oisin" "The Rose" "Crossways" "The Wind Among the Reeds" "The Old Age of Queen Maeve" "Baile and Aillinn" "In the Seven Woods" "The Shadowy Waters" "From The Green Helmet" "Responsibilities" "The Wild Swans at Coole" "Michael Robartes and the Dancer" "The Tower" "The Winding Stair" "From A Full Moon in March" "Last Poems" Total:

Total Lines 901 583 568 528 154 207 272 677 261 1003 1232 494 1310 1201 343 1611 11,345

% of No. of 11 Total Analyzed 7.9 5.1 5.0 4.6 1.3 1.8 2.3 5.9 2.3 8.8 10.8 4.3 11.5 10.5 3.0 14.2

238 155 152 139 40 55 74 178 71 267 327 132 361 324 97 430 3040

14

PRELIMINARIES TO ANALYSIS

To insure analysis of what is in fact the 'early' style (rather than 'late' revision), I have based my readings of the earlier poems — those drawn from sections A through J 1 — on the texts of the earliest collected editions of Yeats' poems instead of on the definitive (London) edition. 2 Beginning with K, however, that is, with "The Wild Swans at Coole" (1919), I have based my readings on the definitive text of 1949.3 With their publication of An Outline of English Structure,4 Trager and Smith provided a decisive impetus toward prosodic analysis based on the findings of modern linguists. In subsequent articles both men expanded and clarified — in areas of vital interest to the student of rhythmic structure — their initial condensed presentation. 5 In my readings of Yeats' poems I have adopted what is basically the position of Trager and Smith with respect to stress and juncture. Still following Smith, I have at times incorporated into my markings (see n.8 below) some indication of the allophonic weight carried by the second of two successive syllables bearing the same stress phoneme by doubling the secondary stress mark to note a secondary stress in excess of an adjacent secondary stress (o ó ó ó; Hockett's term 'reduced primary' — in spite of Mr. Trager's objections to it — would seem of practical use in these instances6). I have not, however, attempted to follow Mr. Smith's specifications with respect to the fixed degrees of stress which he assigns to the various word-classes in English (in "Towards Redefining English THE READINGS.

1

Throughout this study I shall use the letter abbreviations (A, B, C, etc.) to refer to the larger sections or blocks of poems. 2 For a complete listing of the texts analyzed and of the editions from which the texts are drawn, see Appendix A. Because the edition from which I have taken the texts of the "Rose" poems antedates that on which I have based my readings of the "Crossways" block, I have reversed in my chronological listing the order of these two sections as they appear in the definitive edition of 1949. 3 Since The Variorum Edition of the Poems of W. B. Yeats (ed. Peter Allt and Russell Alspach [New York, 1957]) reprints both the definitive text and the variations from this text as these occurred in earlier editions of Yeats' work, my references to the poems will be to this edition — against which I have checked the original texts —• cited in the notes and running text as Variorum and V. respectively. I have indicated in Appendix A the bibliographical number which the editors of the Variorum have assigned to the editions of Yeats' work from which I have drawn the early texts, that is, through J (1914). 4 SILOP, 3 (Norman, Oklahoma, 1951). 6 See, for example, Trager's essay "Some Thoughts on Juncture", SIL, 16 (1962), 11-22, and Smith's earlier article "Towards Redefining English Prosody", SIL, 14 (1959), 68-76. 8 See A Course In Modern Linguistics (New York, 1958) and Trager's review of it in SIL, 14 (1959), 77-81.

PRELIMINARIES TO ANALYSIS

15

Prosody", for example, 67), since, while he provides in some measure for rhetorical emphasis, he is clearly n o t allowing for the variations in stress which may be induced simply by the rhythmic impulse of the verse. Following Yeats' o w n example, I have assigned the modern Irish pronunciation to the Gaelic names which occur throughout his work; 7 elsewhere I have adopted the British pronunciation of English words where it differs from American usage. Although probable elisions are indicated in the graphic notation, 8 in the actual analysis I have consistently allowed full numerical value to the 'extra' syllables. 9

THE DESCRIPTIVE FRAME. With respect to the final organization of the

descriptive account that I shall present in Chapters II, III, and IV of this

7

"The Pronunciation of Irish Words", Variorum, 840-841. For an extended sample of the readings on which the analysis is based, see Appendix B. I have adopted the following symbols to represent the abstracted prosodic elements: o = a single syllable of weak or unemphatic value 6 = a syllable bearing primary stress o = a syllable bearing secondary stress in excess of adjacent secondary stress 6 = a syllable bearing secondary stress o = a syllable bearing tertiary stress oo = possible elision The straight comma / is used to mark the break between rhythmic groups, the caret A for longer pause (in this study only that which is graphically indicated by pausepunctuation in the text) at more open junctures, and the dotted caret A for a pause of indeterminate length (that is graphically indicated). 9 In a descriptive analysis there is, of course, no such thing as an 'extra' syllable — there is only what is there. Syllables are 'extra' only in terms of a preconceived pattern usually thought of as a metrical paradigm which is more or less perfectly realized in a given poem. The preceptive bias which this view suggests, however, has no place in a descriptive study. Such bias vitiates in part the professedly objective account of Yeats' prosodic practice offered by Harvey Gross in his book Sound and Form in Modern Poetry (Ann Arbor, 1964). Speaking of Yeats' poem "The Magi", for example, Gross writes: "Yeats, like Milton, follows a principle of elision; syllables, ordinarily spoken in performance, do not count in scansion. Hovering, Calvary, mystery, and bestial are disyllabic. Whether Yeats himself said, in rich Irish brogue, hov'ring and myst'ry, does not matter; the metrical paradigm calls for six iambic feet in the line" (49). By describing what should be — indeed what might be — rather than what actually is present in the text, Mr. Gross has shifted the emphasis of his study, and in so doing has at least partially precluded a;n accurate account of Yeats' particular poetic style. In fact, the general cadence (see n. 16 below) of the poem in question «characterized by a serial repetition of disyllabic rising units—six to a line—and may, therefore, be described as iambic hexameter. But possible elision cannot explain the apparently extra syllable in lines two and three: "In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones / Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky" where, it would seem, the metrical paradigm might equally well "call for six iambic feet in the line".

8

16

PRELIMINARIES TO ANALYSIS

study, it is again Yeats himself who has provided the most convenient frame of reference. Writing of his style in 1937, he observed: It was a long time before I had made a language to my liking; I began to make it when I discovered some twenty years ago that I must seek, not as Wordsworth thought, words in common use, but a powerful and passionate syntax, and a complete coincidence between period and stanza. Because I need a passionate syntax for passionate subject-matter I compel myself to accept those traditional metres that have developed with the language. Ezra Pound, Turner, Lawrence wrote admirable free verse, I could not. I would lose myself, become joyless... If I wrote of personal love or sorrow in free verse, or in any rhythm that left it unchanged, amid all its accidence, I would be full of self-contempt because of my egotism and indiscretion, and foresee the boredom of my reader. I must choose a traditional stanza, even what I alter must seem traditional. 10 In the same essay Yeats speaks of those "traditional metres" as "a ghostly voice, an invariable possibility, an unconscious norm" that must not be exorcised: When I speak blank verse and analyse my feelings, I stand at a moment of history when the instinct, its traditional songs and dances, its general agreement, is of the past ... The contrapuntal structure of the verse, to employ a term adopted by Robert Bridges, combines the past and the present. If I repeat the first line of Paradise Lost so as to emphasize its five feet I am among the folk singers — 'Of mán's first dísobédience and the frúit,' but speak it as I should I cross it with another emphasis, that of passionate prose — 'Of mán's first disobédience and the frúit,' or 'Of mán's first disobedience and the frúit'; the folk song is still there, but a ghostly voice, an invariable possibility, an unconscious norm. What moves me and my hearer is a vivid speech that has no laws except that it must not exorcise the ghostly voice. 11 It would seem — if one may take his honesty for granted — that Yeats deliberately fleshed out with his own poetic idiom those "traditional metres" which had grown up with the language, creating through a conscious effort "to make the language of poetry coincide with that of passionate, normal speech" what is commonly recognized as his mature, or the 'typically Yeatsian' style. If, as his critics have repeatedly suggested, the change from 'early' to 'late' Yeats reaches down into and is embodied in the very rhythms of his verse, one may assume as a working hypothesis that the rhythmic structure of the later poems differs from that of the early insofar as Yeats successfully achieved the coincidence of languages 10 11

Essays, 521-522. Essays, 524.

PRELIMINARIES TO ANALYSIS

17

he sought. He was concerned, unlike many of his contemporaries, not with altering or abandoning "traditional metres" but with shaping them to the language of passionate speech, or conversely, and perhaps more accurately, with shaping his passionate syntax to that "invariable possibility", that "ghostly voice" of which he wrote. Clearly, then, a careful examination of the rhythmic structure of his verse demands an initial consideration of the metrical form underlying Yeats' poetry. It is, therefore, with this form that I shall be concerned in the following chapter where I shall consider and describe in some detail (1) the smallest units of the metrical structure, (2) significant metrical variations within the limits of a single line, (3) the structure of the verse-line itself, and finally (4) the construction of the stanza or verse group. In Chapters III and IV, I shall turn to an examination of the structure of speech, that "other emphasis" with which Yeats sought to cross the "traditional metres", describing there the (semantically ordered) units of the 'natural' speech base, 12 that is (1) the stress or rhythmic group and significant patterns of such groups within the limits of the verse-line, and (2) what I shall call the speech-unit, that is, a stretch of speech, of whatever span, that is bounded by pause-punctuation graphically indicated in the text — the "textual pauses". I shall emphasize the relation, whether of coincidence or tension, between these units (which I shall define and illustrate in some detail) and those of the metrical structure. Despite the fact that an account of Yeats' prosodic practice may well present initially a description of the metrical form of his verse, it is rather to a consideration of the rhythmic structure simply as such that one must turn in the beginning stages of analysis, discriminating among the aggregatory units of the natural speech base first the rhythmic group (marked by the presence of a single primary stress), and then the larger speech-units (phonologically defined chiefly by their terminal contours), indicating in the graphic notation both the span of such units and the occurrence within them of primary and subordinate accentuation. 13 For the purposes of metrical analysis ORDER AND METHOD OF ANALYSIS.

12

Throughout this study I have used the terms 'natural' speech and 'natural' speech base not to suggest that speech in general (to say nothing of Yeats' speech) is 'natural' in the ordinary sense of the word, but simply to underline the distinction between the rhythmic structures of sound as heard in speech generally and the metrical structures which are "constituted 'artificially' by abstraction and recombination of prosodic components of the (rhythmic) group in some fixed scheme." (La Driere, EPP, 676.) 13 For the general theory of prosody on which this study is based see the article "Prosody" by Craig La Driere in the Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (ed. A.

18

PRELIMINARIES TO ANALYSIS

the multiple contrast of values in these elements of natural speech — although distinctly relevant to the analysis of rhythmic cadence14 — are reduced to the single binary opposition of strong stress versus weak stress.15 An examination of what may be called the general cadence of

Preminger [Princeton, 1965], 669-677). Unlike the typical contenders in the current debate between 'traditional metrists' and 'linguistic prosodists' (see, for example, the articles by Wimsatt and Beardsley, M. Halpern, G. B. Pace, C. S. Lewis, Seymour Chatman, Terence Hawkes, et al. cited in the Bibliography), La Driere emphasizes the relatedness of what Pace has called "the two domains", defining the rhythm of speech as "a structure of ordered variation in the quantitative aspects of the flow of sound in which contrast is balanced by a cyclic recurrence of some identity" (EPF, 670), and meter as "a fixed schematization of the cyclically recurring identity in a rhythmic series". A sophisticated analysis of the rhythmic structure of verse at least supposes, as La Driere points out — in fact, demands — some understanding of its phonetic material. It is precisely because the linguists have refined and are at present refining their methods of analyzing the dynamic structures of sound in speech that the literary critics must turn to them for instruction. A linguistically oriented analysis of a given text, far from obscuring the rhythmic — and within this, the metrical — structure, serves rather to sharpen one's perception of the constituent elements. The finer shades of contrast are thrown into relief, thus assisting the critic to determine the metrical design as it is realized in the verse. Further, those aspects of the quantitative structure that are relevant to literary analysis are more accurately described in a linguistic frame. It is the way in which a poet arranges his rhythms (in which meter may or may not inhere) that constitutes his rhythmic style, constitutes, therefore, what may be called in short his prosody. In a total analysis it is the 'coincidence' of "folk song" and "vivid speech", of "invariable possibility" and the actualization of that possibility in the poems, rather than the separateness of the domains of meter and rhythm, that must concern the student of rhythmic structure in Yeats' verse. 14 Rhythmic cadence may be defined as the "pattern of successive or positional relation of prominent ('strong' or 'emphatic') elements to less prominent ('weak' or 'unemphatic') elements ... Cadence involves the two aspects of 'span' (the number of elements over which a unitary pattern extends) and 'direction' (the positional or successional order of the elements)." (La Driere, EPP, 672.) 15 For a recent discussion of the constituent elements of various metrical types see the articles by John Lotz, "Metric Typology" in Style and Language, ed. Thomas Sebeok (New York, 1960) and "A Notation for the Germanic Verse Line" in Lingua, VI (1956). In the latter essay Mr. Lotz writes: "The meter of a verse line in a modern Germanic language is established by (a) enumerating the syllabic peaks, and (b) assigning each peak to one of two classes: heavy (full, stressed) or light (weak, unstressed). Two remarks are in order here: a. The term 'syllabic peak' or briefly -syllabic', is used instead of the customary 'syllable'. This is done in part because the term 'syllable' is employed in the literature to refer to a variety of separate though correlated speech phenomena, such as chest pulses, or stretches determined by intensity or sonority maxima... A more important consideration is that all these concepts involve both maxima and boundaries; of these only the maxima are relevant for the meter, whereas the boundaries are not... b. There is no a priori reason why there should not be more than two classes of constituents relevant for meter; however, I have never encountered such a verse system" (1-3).

PRELIMINARIES TO ANALYSIS

19

16

Yeats' verse reveals the presence throughout of a more or less regular alternation of weaker and stronger stresses, so that the poems in general are properly described as metrical, and the smallest constitutive unit of the metrical structure as an iamb. 17 In the following chapters, then, I shall describe both the metrical form of Yeats' verse and the (rhythmic) structure of the natural speech base. In my conclusion I shall present a summary account of Yeats' prosodic practice based on the analysis.

16 "The general cadence of speech, as distinct from the succession of the unitary cadences of its group-units, is the continuous pattern within it of positional relation of prominent and unemphatic syllables, without reference to group division or groupboundaries, and hence without reference to group-contours as such ... Regulation of general cadence by schematization of recurrence within it provides cadence-meter in 'stress' languages, notably the Germanic, including English." (La Driere, EPF, 675.) 17 That is to say that in the metrical structure of Yeats' verse the basic unit of recurrence is a disyllabic group in which the second syllable bears the stronger stress. I shall call these recurring units feet and retain the classical terms to describe them. Mr. Parkinson's dismissal of the possibility that Yeats wrote in what Parkinson calls a 'foot prosody' is based on a somewhat tenuous argument and betrays what is perhaps a fundamental misunderstanding of the basic constituents of meter. In his discussion of Yeats' late prosodic practice Parkinson writes: "Within the decasyllabic line the intent is to load the line with major stresses, and the fact that the variation in syllables is negligible indicates that if Yeats was writing in accentual feet, he certainly made infrequent substitutions of anapest or dactyl for iamb and extremely frequent use of the spondee. It seems to me, however, unlikely that he used a foot prosody in view of the fact that his manuscripts give no example of scanning by feet" [additional emphasis mine]. And again: "It has always seemed to me particularly fruitless to exert on Yeats' verse the norms of foot meter, and to be quite frank I am extremely skeptical of the value of scanning most English verse by breaking it down into patterns of syllables that form something called feet. Ifind no positive evidence that Yeats thought in terms offeet [italics mine], and my own persuasion is that he combined a syllabic and a stress prosody. In such a prosody a five-stress line is the equivalent of a ten-syllable line, and the two are interchangeable". (W. B. Yeats, the Later Poetry, 189,203.) In quoting from Yeats' notes on the subject of the poem "The Mother of God", Mr. Parkinson, constrained to admit the word feet — which occurs in the Yeats' manuscript — into the body of his argument, is forced to translate: "Yeats evidently meant by 'feet' stresses, as his finished poem shows" (200). Like the argument of Mr. Gross (see n. 9 above), Mr. Parkinson's "persuasion" suggests a critical bias — post hoc propter hoc — that tends to distort, if not obscure, the evidence provided by the texts themselves.

II THE METRICAL FORM

An examination of the general cadence of the verse which forms the basis of this study shows that it is clearly marked by a regular alternation of weak and strong stresses in a rising stress relationship within a frame that extends typically to two syllables.1 Such disyllabic groups — which I shall call iambs 2 — account for 75.56 % of the total number of metrical units. [Chart I, 89-91] In another 7.98 %, the rising direction being maintained, the span is extended to three syllables.3 Further, in accord with the findings of linguists who have recently addressed themselves to the study of the relative intensity of stress in syllable sequences, the so-called pyrrhic and spondaic — even the monosyllabic — feet may also be numbered among the rising units;4 THE UNIT OF GENERAL CADENCE.

1 That is, the regularly recurring identity which constitutes the meter of these poems is not simply the syllable on the one hand, n o r the occurrence of strong stress on the other, but rather an arrangement of weaker and stronger stresses in a marked (positional) relation. 2 F o r convincing arguments which favor the retention of traditional classical terminology to describe the analogous units of English meters, see (among others) the articles by C. S. Lewis ("Metre", REL, 1 [1960], 45-50) and Martin Halpern ("On the Two Chief Metrical Modes in English", PMLA, LXXVI1 [1962], 177-186, especially 180). 3 In only two of the poems, however, Part III of "The Wanderings of Oisin" and " T h e Falling of the Leaves" ( Variorum, pp. 47 ff. and 79), is the anapest the basic unit of the metrical structure. More commonly, the trisyllabic units are absorbed into the iambic meter which is loosened to include them. 4 See Linguistics and English Prosody, SILOP, 7, Buffalo (1959) by Edmund Epstein and Terence Hawkes, where the authors note: "Other pre-prosodic elements that will have to be considered are the facts that the second stress in a series of the same kind (provided n o other stresses come between) is phonetically ... stronger than the first..." (14), and a subsequent article by Hawkes, " T h e Problems of Prosody" {REL, III [April, 1962], 32-49). Henry Lee Smith presents similar observations both in his introduction to the former of these works and in his own article "Towards Redefining English Prosody": " . . . in a two-syllable metrical foot not only does the ictus fall on the syllable bearing the stronger of any two of the four stress phonemes, but it will also fall on the second of two successive syllables bearing the same stress phonemes, since the second syllable carries the louder allophone of the phoneme" (68).

THE METRICAL FORM

21

the summary total of feet which may be described as rising comprise 89.73 % of the total number of metrical units in the lines examined. The serial repetition of rising units, typically disyllabic in span, characteristically accounts for the lineal structure of the verse, so that the over-all metrical pattern may be described as iambic in form. Interestingly, there does not seem to be a significant chronological variation in Yeats' poetic practice in this respect. In B (1892), J (1914), M (1928), and O (1935) the iambic foot accounts for slightly more than 80% of the 13081 units studied; in A (1889), D (1899), F (1903), and P (1938-1939) the occurrence of iambic feet accounts for approximately 65% to 69% of the block totals. The extremes of high and low incidence, then, evidently do not represent a change in Yeats' prosody that can be accounted for in terms of'early' and 'late' style. Among the falling units the trochee shows the highest rate of incidence, occurring 1052 times (8.04%).5 In six of the larger blocks, E (1903), F (1903), G (1903), I (1910), L (1920), and P (1938-1939), it accounts for somewhat more than 10% of the total number of feet in each block. In only one of the poems examined, "The Arrow", can it be said to constitute the metrical norm. 6 It occurs in all positions of the line (though less frequently in the last), where, like other 'substitutions', it serves to vary for perception but rarely to destroy the iambic cadence. In constructing the line Yeats showed an early preference, lasting through his 1899 volume of poems, for tetrameters. Beginning with E, however, (that is, in 1903) with the single exception of J (the "Responsibilities" block), the pentameter line ranks highest in rate of occurrence. In adjusting the line so that it included metric variations, Yeats most frequently expanded: the pentameter to as many as fourteen syllables, the tetrameter to thirteen, and the trimeter to ten. An interesting correlation between the occurrence of monosyllabic feet and short tetrameter verses is noticeable in N (1929) and, to a lesser degree, in P (1938-1939).7 As Gross has pointed out, the use of monosyllabic and THE LINE.

5

The dactyl, as Mr. Parkinson has rightly observed, is an infrequent 'substitution' and never occurs as norm. 6 I classify the short lyric "The Arrow" (Variorum, 199) as basically trochaic pentameter. Marilyn Denton, however, in her (lineal) classification of Yeats' lyric poems numbers it among the tetrameters (The Form of Yeats' Lyric Poetry, 209). 7 An unexpected reversal in the direction of the meter, particularly if it is sustained across two or more feet of the verse-line, generally creates an effect like that of musical counterpoint by playing a' new rhythmic pattern against the basic meter. In the late poetry Yeats often achieves the effect of rhythmic counterpoint by substituting monosyllabic feet for the expected iambs. See n. 14, Chapter IV below.

22

THE METRICAL FORM

counterpointed feet is almost a rhythmic signature of the later Yeats [Chart II, 92-97].8 Perhaps more striking than his skill in metrical counterpoint, however, is Yeats' control of lineal tempo — a control, gradually but surely achieved, that enabled him to introduce into the regular movement of the rhythm the pronounced quickening (by the increase of unstressed syllables between stressed peaks: o ô o ô o o ô o o ) or the deliberate slowing (by the juxtaposition of strong stresses) that is characteristic of his verse. The opening or 'loosening' of the basic iambic meter either by inversion (in general, trochaic 'substitution': 6 o o 6 o 0) or by extension (chiefly anapestic 'substitution': o 6 o o 6 o 6) occurs throughout the sample. 34.73% or 1056 of the 3040 lines examined include at least one variation of this kind; 7.45% of the lines are marked by a repeated occurrence of such variations. [Chart III, 98] In general, this opening of the basic metrical pattern effects for perception a definite quickening of tempo: Among the leaves of the laurel wall 0 6 0 6 0 0 0 0 6 A: "The Wanderings of Oisin" (K, 3) Tossing and tossing to and fro IT o o A 0 6 / 0 Ô A "cfô /OUT/ o6/o6/o6A

What climbs the stair? Nothing that common women ponder on If you are worth my hope! Neither Content P: "To Dorothy Wellesley" (K., 579)

6/6/06 A 60 / o 6 o / 6 o / 6 o à / oô/oô/oô A 6006/

Although the ends of the verse-lines which form the first part of the extra-lineal speech-units are not, by definition, marked by textual pause,

46

THE STRUCTURES OF SPEECH: THE SPEECH-UNIT

the break between rhythmic groups (which, as I have noted in Chapter III, typically coincides with the end of the verse-line) together with other defining factors, contributes to the identity of the verse-line as such. Further, it will be remarked that the lineal fractions of the extra-lineal speech-units, again because of the rhythmic break that marks the line limit, often retain a fractional identity with respect to the whole unit, so that such units are frequently perceived not as integral but rather as bipartite — composed of a lineal (or multi-lineal) unit and a lineal fraction. In these lines from "Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop", for example: 'My friends are gone, [but that's a truth Nor grave nor bed denied,] the fractional component ("but that's a truth") of the extra-lineal unit — partly, of course, because it forms a distinct syntactic unit, and partly because it exactly repeats the prosodic pattern of the first half of the line — resists identification with the lineal component of the speech-unit. On the other hand, there is a marked tendency in the later poetry (where Yeats more regularly and emphatically distributes the sense across verselines) toward speech-unit identity, a phenomenon which often brings the speech-unit into tension with the line, clearly imposing on the lineal structure (however briefly) a distinct rhythmic pattern. It seems that I must bid the Muse go pack, Choose Plato and Plotinus for a friend Until imagination, ear and eye, Can be content with argument and deal In abstract things; or be derided by A sort of battered kettle at the heel. 06/0606/06/06 A 6/60/6060/606/ 0000060 A 6/06 A

0 6 0 6 / 0 0 o 6/o 6/

0 6 6 0 A 0 0 0 6 0 / 0 ...1 ...O 6 / O 6 O / 6 O / O O O A M: "The Tower" (K., 409)

A rivery field spread out below, An odour of the new-mown hay In his nostrils, the great lord of Chou ["000,0 o O o / O / I 3 T ó 0 \ OÒÓ/OÓ/

N: "Vacillation" (K, 502)

THE STRUCTURES OF SPEECH: THE SPEECH-UNIT

What matter that you understood no word! Doubtless I spoke or sang what I had heard In broken sentences. My soul had found All happiness in its own cause or ground. Godhead on Godhead in sexual spasm begot Godhead. Some shadow fell. My soul forgot ÓÓO/ÓOÓOÓ/ÓÓ A ÓO/OÓ/OÓ/OÓ/OÓ/

OÓO/ÓOO

A

OÓ/OÓ/

ÓÓOÓ/OÓÓÓ/OÓ

A

ó ó / o ó 6 / o ó o~o / ó o / o ó / ÓÓ A Ó Ó O/ Ó A O Ó / O Ó / O: "Ribh in Ecstasy" (V., 557) Why do I hate man, woman or event? That is a light my jealous soul has sent. From terror and deception freed it can Discover impurities, can show at last How soul may walk when all such things are past, How soul could walk before such things began. ÓOOÓ/Ó

A

ÓO/ÓOÓ

4

ÓOOÓ/OÓo/Ó/oóA ~ oóo/óo6o/6/oó ...o Ó o / O Ó O ó \ O Ó / O Ó / OÓ/OÓ/OÓÓÓ/OÓ A OÓ/ÓÓ/OÓÓÓ/OÓ

A

O: "Ribh Considers Christian Love ..." (K, 558) His long lamp-chimney shaped like the stem Of a slender palm, stood but a day; P: "Lapis Lazuli" (K, 566) No! Greater than Pythagoras, for the men That with a mallet or a chisel modelled these Calculations that look but casual flesh, put down All Asiatic vague immensities, And not the banks of oars that swam upon The many-headed foam at Salamis. 6A60/60600 A oo6/ o 6 o 6 o / 6 0 6 o / 6 o / 6... ^ , ...6 o 6 o / o 6 ) o 6 o o / 6 A 6 6 J OÓOÓO/Ó/OÓO ó ^ o ó / o ó / o ó / o ó / o ô..

48

THE STRUCTURES OF SPEECH: THE SPEECH-UNIT

The remaining speech-units — approximately 40 % of the total 2887 — are fractional [Chart XIV, 113], all measuring less than the span of the single verse-line in which they occur. If the number of verse-lines which enter into the construction of the co-lineal, multi-lineal and extra-lineal speech-units is subtracted from the total number of lines examined, there remain only between five and six hundred verse-lines (less than 20 % of the sample) which are, in fact, broken up into fractional speech-units by the occurrence of textual pause within them.8 With the exception of blocks A, F, and H, in which the total number of fractional units (i.e. and accounts for 64.67%, 16.66%, and 61.50% of the speech-units respectively,9 the range of incidence throughout the sample is not noticeably wide, varying from 28.22% in D to 44.73 % in I. In the later poetry, moreover, beginning with J (1914) and continuing through N (1933) the variation in frequency of occurrence is slight, not exceeding 4.5%; even when the final two blocks are taken into account the range is less than 12 %. The variations from block to block in the order of occurrence among the three classes of fractional speech-units do not seem to be significant [Chart XV, 114-116]. The comparatively high percentage of half-line units which occur in blocks A and B (22.75 % and 12.94 % of the total number of speech-units respectively) is readily explained in terms of the long verse-line included in these blocks. The effect, achieved in such lines by the perfect balancing of rhythmic groups, strongly resembles that of the lineal repetition which marks the early verse: Were we days l o n g or hours long in riding, w h e n rolled in a grisly peace, A n isle lay level before us, dripping with hazel and o a k ?

8

These figures are, of course, only approximate. To determine the number of lines which enter into the construction of fractional speech-units, I have arbitrarily assigned specific values to the —J and the units of one-third and three-fourths the span of a single verse-line. 9 The extremes of diversity marked by these figures are, I think, readily explained. The high rate of incidence among the fractional units is to be expected in A ("Oisin") where the long line (of Book HI especially) seems to demand division simply for convenience in reading; in H, the only long dramatic poem (properly speaking) included in the sample, the dialogue — reflecting the climactic tension of the structure of meaning — is naturally marked by a series of brief, intense utterances. The prosodic structure of this block, in fact, foreshadows in this respect that of the later dramatic poems in which Yeats attempts to make his work "convincing with a speech so natural and dramatic the hearer would feel the presence of a man thinking and feeling" (.Letters, 583). Finally, the low rate of incidence in F is increased to more normal proportions if one considers as virtual short units the lineal fractions which enter into the construction of the extra-lineal speech-units. The clear definition of the verse-line in the units of this group underscores the fractional identity of the partial-line components.

THE STRUCTURES OF SPEECH: THE SPEECH-UNIT

49

And we stood on a sea's edge we saw not; for whiter than new-washed fleece Fled foam underneath us, and round us a wandering and milky smoke. 0066/006/06o A 06/0060/6 A 0 6/o 6o /o 6 "60/060/0 " 0 0 6 / 0 0 6 6 / 0 6 o"^ o o o / o 6 o / 6"7 06/0060 A 066/0600/060/6 A A: "The Wanderings of Oisin" ( K, 47) 1 will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. "O6O6/O66a "o 6 / o 6 O "o 0 6 / 6 o / 6 o""^ 06/06o/ "6 6 6 / 0 0 0 6 7 " "06/00606^ 06/06/0066/6^ B: "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (K, 117)

In these instances, largely because of the metrical variation which has loosened the basic iambic pattern of the general cadence, it is the center (or primary stress) of the rhythmic groups — which coincides in each case with the metrical ictus — that is prominent for perception. The repetition of the same number of primary stresses in the half-line speechunits accounts in large measure for the effect of exact lineal repetition.10 In general, however, it may be said that the occurrence, even the close repetition of fractional speech-units does not as such necessarily destroy or compromise the lineal identity of the verse-lines in which they occur. If in certain of the poems the occurrence of fractional speech-units effects a pronounced discontinuity in the speech (often bringing about in this way an emphatic counterpointing of the verse-line; see n. 15 below), the explanation is rather to be sought in the kind of pause that bounds the speech-unit than in the span or distribution of such units. 11 The lineal identity is retained, for example, despite the clustering of fractional speechunits, in these lines from B: 10 In much of the early verse it is the repetition of the metrical units (see 41-42) rather than of the rhythmic groups which accounts for the effect of exact lineal repetition. 11 I do not, of course, present these alternatives as absolute. The qualitative figuration, for example, exercises definite control over the lineal and speech-unit identity of both the verse-line and the speech-unit. In the case of end-rhyme — particularly where the rhyme is full — one almost always tends to give additional weight in reading to the second or third word of a rhyming sequence. On the contrary, the first word of a rhyme sequence — what may be called the rhyme giver — has less positive influence on the prosodic structure than the succeeding repetitions.

50

THE STRUCTURES OF SPEECH: THE SPEECH-UNIT

Red Rose, / proud Rose, / sad Rose of all my days, / Come near me while I sing the ancient ways — Cuchullin battling with the bitter tide; 6 6 A'^o\'o o / o 6 / o

006006/060/6 A 060/60/6060/6 A

B: "To the Rose upon the Rood of Time" (K, 100)

In a later poem, however, the effect created by the occurrence of fractional units is quite different: A sudden blow: / the great wings beating still Above the staggering girl, / her thighs caressed By the dark webs, / her nape caught in his bill, / He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

060/6 4 066/6 o/6 / 0 6 0 0 0 o / 6 A o o / o 67 o o o o A ro 6 / 6 / o o 06/060/6/0666 A

M: "Leda and the Swan" (V., 441)

Where such units are bound by actual silence of indeterminate length (as after the word "blow" in the above example), the effect of discontinuity in the speech is established, and if the speech-units do not coincide with the verse-line the interplay between them and the verse-line is emphatic, creating (particularly in the later verse) a 'typically Yeatsian' rhythmic structure — that is, one in which the "traditional metres" are crossed with that "other emphasis" of which Yeats wrote, with what he called "the powerful and passionate syntax of vivid speech". In "The Tower", for example ("What shall I do with this absurdity — / O heart, O troubled heart — this caricature, / Decrepit age that has been tied to me / As to a dog's tail?..."), in "Byzantium" ("Astraddle on the dolphin's mire and blood, / Sprit after spirit! ..."), in "The Statues" ("Pythagoras planned it. Why did the people stare?"), the abrupt openings, the exclamatory and interrogative structures mark the verse with the unmistakable accents of "vivid, personal speech". Since variations in the (durational) value of .the textual pauses which define the speech-units clearly play a decisive role in shaping the 'contrapuntal structure' that is characteristic of the later verse, I shall turn now to a detailed consideration 12

A thorough-going study of the syntactic structures of Yeats' verse — structures which are clearly reflected in the rhythmic patterns — would provide matter for a separate book. In my conclusion, however, I have suggested and illustrated some possible points of departure for such a study.

THE STRUCTURES OF SPEECH: THE SPEECH-UNIT

51

of the effect of such variations on the rhythmic structures of the poems. In general, the textual pauses may be assigned to two classes, the first including those marks of punctuation that signal an interruption of sound by silence of indeterminate length (the period, the colon, the semi-colon, for example, what I shall the strong pauses) and the second those which indicate simply a more pronounced degree of openness in juncture (the comma and the dash, for example, the weak pauses) than that which normally occurs (unmarked) between rhythmic groups. 13 1113 or 38.55 % of the 2887 textual pauses are strong; 61.44% weak [Chart XVII, 119-120]. In assessing the effect for perception of these variations in degree, several factors must be considered in addition to the differential rate of incidence and the distribution of the pauses. The speech-units themselves, for instance, can be usefully classified, according to the type of pause that binds them, as strong (uninterrupted units defined by silence of indeterminate length), medium-strong (units bound by one weak and one strong pause), and weak (those marked by two weak pauses) [Chart XVIII, 121]. Depending upon whether one counts from the strong pauses (including initial silence) or from the weak pauses, the medium-strong units either begin with actual silence and end with a relatively open degree of transition (though not cessation of sound generally — here the intonation contour is a decisive element) in juncture, or, end with silence and begin with open transition. In these lines from "The Wanderings of Oisin", for example, medium-strong1 weak 'Tis sad remembering, / sick with years, / weak The swift innumerable spears, / weak medium-strong2 The long-haired warriors, / the spread feast; / (V., 2) the first of the two medium-strong units begins with initial silence and ends with relatively open transition (marked by a weak pause); the second begins with open transition and ends with a silence of indeterminate length. The medium-strong units which end with weak pause (mediumstrong 1 above) share for perception the quality of the weak units on the whole; those marked by a final strong pause (medium-strong 2 above) 13 At times, as I have remarked above (n. 4), the weak pause is not stronger for perception than the normal (unmarked) break between rhythmic groups. In order to base this analysis as far as possible on norms supplied by the text itself, however, I have not discriminated further degrees of durational value among the weak pauses.

52

THE STRUCTURES OF SPEECH: THE SPEECH-UNIT

share rather in the quality of the strong speech units. But both weak and medium-strong units tend to be more easily absorbed into the structure of the verse-line than the strong which, typically, are more sharply defined precisely as units and for this reason enter readily into tension with the verse-line. Because such units are often striking for perception, I shall consider them in some detail. Finally, since, as the summary totals indicate [Chart X I X , 122-124], by far the greater number of strong speech-units coincide in span with a single verse-line or a multi-lineal unit, the span of the verse-line, however this may be measured, 1 4 must again be taken into careful account. A m o n g the speech-units 37.16% of the total 2887 are bound by weak pauses; another 48.42% are bound by one weak and one strong pause

14 I have, in fact, measured this line (1) by syllables, (2) by metrical units, that is, by feet [Chart II], and (3) by rhythmic groups [Chart XIII]. Approximately 75 % of the total sample are tetrameter or pentameter lines; in the same way, approximately 75 % of the 3040 verse-lines are composed of three or four single rhythmic groups — nor is there any significant chronological variation in this respect. On the contrary, though the syllable-count as such is negligible for perception, the increase in monosyllabic feet that may be noted in the poems dating from 1910 combined with an increase in short syllable lines — both among the tetrameters and the trimeters — reflects the increase in 'counterpointed lines' which mark, as Gross has observed, almost as prosodic signature, the later poetry. The effect of the 5-syllable trimeter lines in "Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop", for example,

'A woman can be proud and stiff — When on love intent For nothing can be sole or whole — That has not been rent.' or of the 7-syllable tetrameter in "Three Things" 'A man if I but held him so — When my body was alive differs noticeably from that of the metrically more regular lines of the early ballad stanza: The old priest Peter Gilligan Was weary night and day; On the whole, however, such effects are local and do not compromise the lineal identity which is typically defined — at least in the later ballad stanza — by stress count. It is, then, rather to the construction of the stanza and to the relation of the speech-unit to the verse-line that one must turn for a more satisfactory explanation of the variety — even within similar metrical frames, the iambic pentameter, for instance — that marks the later verse. The increase in 'system' (as opposed to 'serial') construction — both within the line and at the level of the stanza — provides initial diversity; the interplay of speech-unit and verse-line often increases the impression of variety.

THE STRUCTURES OF SPEECH: THE SPEECH-UNIT

53

[Chart XVIII, 121]. Both the weak and the medium-strong units, depending on their environments, tend (as I have noted) to be more easily absorbed into the lineal structure of the verse than the strong speech-units. These, on the other hand, particularly the fractional strong units, are characterized by a pronounced unitary identity, and their occurrence — especially in the later poetry—often creates a distinct rhythmic structure, more or less extended, that operates independently of the metrical structure. 15 A striking example of this effect occurs in the opening lines of "Sailing to Byzantium": That is no country for old men. The young In one another's arms, birds in the trees — Those dying generations — at their song, The salmon falls, the mackeral-crowded seas, M: "Sailing to Byzantium." ( V., 407)

000060,006

10

A

06/

A

OO6/O6O6O/6

9

11 12

A

0600/6060/606/ OO6O/6/O6a

13 14

6O/6O6O/6a 600600/600/606

15 16

4

06/060/60/06/6/

17

6O/O6/O6O/6/O6

18

A

O6/O6O6O6aO6a

19

606600/606

20

A

O6O/6O/6O6O/6

21

A

6/600/60/066/

22

06060/6006/ 060/6 A 060/6/06

23 24

4

M: "The Tower" I What shall I do with this absurdity — O heart, O troubled heart — this caricature,

6OO6/O6/O6OO

6 6

A

66o/6

A

1

A

66ooo

A

2

APPENDIX B

84 Decrepit age that has been tied to me As to a dog's tail? Never had I more Excited, passionate, fantastical Imagination, nor an ear and eye That more expected the impossible — No, not in boyhood when with rod and fly, Or the humbler worm, I climbed Ben Bulben's back And had the livelong summer day to spend. It seems that I must bid the Muse go pack, Choose Plato and Plotinusfor a friend Until imagination, ear and eye, Can be content with argument and deal In abstract things; or be derided by A sort of battered kettle at the heel. II I pace upon the battlements and stare On the foundations of a house, or where Tree, like a sooty finger, starts from the earth; And send imagination forth Under the day's declining beam, and call Images and memories From ruin or from ancient trees, For I would ask a question of them all. (V., pp. 409-410) Beyond that ridge lived Mrs. French, and once When every silver candlestick or sconce Lit up the dark mahogany and the wine,

060/6/0066/06/

3

0006/6

00/606/

4

0006/

5

060

A

A

600

06000

A

006/06/

A

06/060/60600 6

A

7

A

6o66/6o6/o6

0000/6

A

6

8

A

66/600/6/

06/066/60/6/00

10

A

06/0606/06/06

9

11

A

6/60/6060,006/

12

0606000

13

. 6 /' 0 0 A.

A

14

O606/OOO6/O6/ O 6 6 6

A

15

0 6 0 6 0 / 6 . . .

. . . O 6 / O 6 O / 6 O / 6 O O

16

A

O6/O60OO6/OO/

17

O606O/6OO

A

18

6

a

a

0 0 6 0 / 6 0

06/ 6 / 0 0 0

a

19

06/06060/6/ 6 0 0 6 / 0 6 0 / 6 A 06/

20 21

006/0606/ 060/6000/6

22 23

A

06/06/000/606

0606/6/60/6

A

24

&

06/

26

060/60/606/06/ 66/06/0600/606

25

A

27

APPENDIX B

85

A serving-man, that could divine That most respected lady's every wish, Ran and with the garden shears Clipped an insolent farmer's ears And brought them in a little covered dish.

o6o6

Some few remembered still when I was young A peasant girl commended by a song, Who'd lived somewhere upon that rocky place, And praised the colour of her face, And had the greater joy in praising her, Remembering that, if she walked there, Farmers jostled at the fair So great a glory did the song confer.

66/060/6/0606/

33

0606/060/600

34

And certain men, being maddened by those rhymes, Or else by toasting her a score of times, Rose from the table and declared it right To test their fancy by their sight; But they mistook the brightness of the moon For the prosaic light of day — Music had driven their wits astray — And one was drowned in the great bog of Cloone. (K, pp. 410-411)

A

o6oo/

28

06/060/60/60/6

29

A

6/00060/6/

30

6/0600/60/6/

31

066/6060/60/6

A

66/66/00660/6 06/060/606

32

A

35

A

36

A

06/060/6/0606

A

37

O6OO/6aO6/6/6a

38

60/60/606/ 06/060/606/06

39 40

060/6

A

A

0060/666

06/0606/06/06

A

41 42

A

6/0060/6066/6/

43

O6/O6O/6O6

44

a

06/06/060/606/

45

00060/6/00 A 60/060/66/06

46 47

A

06/06/0066/06

48

A

N: "Byzantium" The unpurged images of day recede; The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed; Night resonance recedes, night-walkers' song After great cathedral gong;

066600/06/00

O6OO/6O/6OO/6O6

6/600/06

A

606/060/6

660/6/ A

1

A a

2 3 4

APPENDIX B

86 A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains All that man is, All mere complexities, The fury and the mire of human veins.

O Ó Ò / O O Ó Ò / Ó / O Ó /

5

6 /o 6 /6

6 7 8

Before me floats an image, man or shade, Shade more than man, more image than a shade; For Hades' bobbin bound in mummy-cloth May unwind the winding path; A mouth that has no moisture and no breath Breathless mouths may summon; I hail the superhuman; I call it death-in-life and lifein-death.

O Ó Ò / Ó / O Ó O

Miracle, bird or golden handiwork, More miracle than bird or handiwork, Planted on the star-lit golden bough, Can like the cocks of Hades crow, Or, by the moon embittered, scorn aloud In glory of changeless metal Common bird or petal And all complexities of mire or blood. ( V„ pp. 497-498)

ÓOO

A

Ó / Ó / O Ó O Ó

A

O Ó O / Ó O Ó / O Ó O / Ó

Ó / Ò O Ó

A

A

Ó/OÓ

A

A

Ò Ó O / Ò O Ó

A

9 10

O Ó O / Ó O / Ó / O Ó O Ò /

11

Ò O Ó / O Ó O / Ó

12

A

O Ó / O Ò Ò Ó O / Ó Ò Ó /

13

Ó O / Ó / O Ó O

14

O Ó / O Ò O Ó O

A

A

O Ó Ò / Ó / O Ó / O Ó / O Ó

A

Ó / O Ó O / Ó O Ò

Ò Ó O Ò / O Ó / O Ó O Ò Ó O / Ó O Ó Ò / Ó O / Ó Ó / O O Ó / O Ó O / Ó 6

A

A

O O Ó / O Ó O

A

17 18

A

19

A

20

A

6 / O Ó ;

A

15 16

O Ó O / O Ó O / Ó O / Ó O / Ó / O Ó O / O Ó / O Ó O Ò / O Ó / O Ó

A

21 22 23 24

N: "Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop" I met the Bishop on the road And much said he and I. 'Those breasts are flat and fallen now, Those veins must soon be dry; Live in a heavenly mansion, Not in some foul sty.' 'Fair and foul are near of kin, And fair needs foul,' I cried. 'My friends are gone, but that's a truth Nor grave nor bed denied,

O Ó / O Ó O / Ò O Ó /

06/06/06 J Ò Ó / O Ó / O Ó O / Ó Ò Ó / O Ó / O Ó

A

Ó / O O Ó O O / Ó O

6

/ 0 ò

ò

A

ó A

Ó / O Ó / O Ó / O Ó O Ó / Ò Ó / O Ó

O6/O6

A

a

A

A

OÓ/O6/

O Ó / O Ó / O Ó

A

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

87

APPENDIX B Learned in bodily lowliness And in the heart's pride.

00/0600/606/ 0 60 0 /0A

11 12

'A woman can be proud and stiff When on love intent; But Love has pitched his mansion in The place of excrement; For nothing can be sole or whole That has not been rent.' ( K , p. 513)

000/606/06/

13

O/OO/OO

06/06/000/6...

14 15

... 0 6 / 0 0 0 6 A 000/606/06/

16 17

60600

18

A

A

P: "The Gyres" 6 6 O 6

6 6

The gyres: the gyres: Old Rocky Face, look forth; Things thought too long can be no longer thought, For beauty dies of beauty, worth of worth, And ancient lineaments are blotted out. Irrational streams of blood are staining earth; Empedocles has thrown all things about; Hector is dead and there's a light in Troy; We that look on but laugh in tragic joy.

° 6

What matter though numb nightmare ride on top, And blood and mire the sensitive body stain? What matter? Heave no sigh, let no tear drop, A greater, a more gracious time has gone; For painted forms or boxes of make-up In ancient tombs I sighed, but not again; What matter? Out of cavern comes a voice, And all it knows is that one word 'Rejoice:'

660/6606/6/06

Conduct and work grow coarse, and coarse the soul, What matter? Those that Rocky Face holds dear,

4

O O

a

a

6/6/66/06/600/6 060/6/060

A

A

6/06

000/606/060/6

1

a

4

A A

7

A

6/O66/O6/O6O/6

8

a

9

A

06/06/0600/60/6 A

6/66

000

A

0600/6/06

A

5 6

A

00/06/06/06/06

66o

3

A

0600/6/06/000/6 0606/06/66/00

2

666/6

A A

10 11 12

A

060/6/000/066/

13

O6O/6/6OAO6OOA

14

600

15

A

6060/6/06

06/06/0606/06 66/06/60 600

A

A

A

06/06

6/0606/60

16

A

A A

17 18

88

Lovers of horses and of women, shall, From marble of a broken sepulchre, Or dark betwixt the polecat and the owl, Or any rich, dark nothing disinter The workman, noble and saint, and all things run On that unfashionable gyre again. (V., pp. 564-565)

APPENDIX B

6o/o6o/6o6o

A

060/6060/600

6

A

19 20

A

o6/o6oo6/6o6A

21

060/6

22

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a

A

6/60/606/

6O/O6

a

O66/6/

o6/o6ooo/6/o6

t

23

24

P: "Crazy Jane on the Mountain" I am tired of cursing the Bishop, (Said Crazy Jane) Nine books or nine hats Would not make him a man. I have found something worse To meditate on. A King had some beautiful cousins, But where are they gone? Battered to death in a cellar, And he stuck to his throne. Last night I lay on the mountain, (Said Crazy Jane) There in a two-horsed carriage That on two wheels ran Great-bladderedEmersat, Her violent man Cuchulain sat at her side; Thereupon, Propped upon my two knees, I kissed a stone; I lay stretched out in the dirt And I cried tears down. (K, p. 628)

oo6o/o6o/o6oA

1

o6o/6A 66/o66/ oo66/o6A 006/666/ 06006 4 o6/oo6oo/6oA

2 3 4 5 6 7

o6/oo6A 60/06/0060 06/6/006 4 66/06/0060

8 9 10 11

A A

060/6 4 6/0 066/60/ 0066/6/ 660/60/6 A 0600/6/ 060/6/006^ 6o6A 6/00666A 06/06 4 06/66/006/ 006/6/6 4

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

0 6 0 6 / 0 6 0 A 6^_o 6 / 6/0066/00600/6/

1 2

060/6060^6/06/

3

6oo/6/6oo/o6o/6A

4

06060/060/6/66/

5

O: "Whence Had They Come" Eternity is passion, girl or boy Cry at the onset of their sexual joy 'For ever and for ever'; then awake Ignorant what Dramatis Personae spake; A passion-driven exultant man sings out

APPENDIX B Sentences that he has never thought; The Flagellant lashes those submissive loins Ignorant what that dramatist enjoins, What master made the lash. Whence had they come, The hand and lash that beat down frigid Rome? What sacred drama through her body heaved When world-transforming Charlemagne was conceived?

89

6oo/o6/o6o/6'

6

A

0600/60/6060/6/

7

600/6/6600/06

8

66O/6/O6

a

A

6/OOO

9

A

06/06/066/60/6

10

A

060/60/6660/6/ O6O6O/6OO/6O6

11 12

a

(V., p. 560) O: "Meru" Civilization is hooped together, brought Under a rule, under the semblance of peace By manifold illusion; but man's life is thought, And he, despite his terror, cannot cease Ravening through century after century, Ravening, raging, and uprooting that he may come Into the desolation of reality: Egypt and Greece, good-bye, and good-bye, Rome: Hermits upon Mount Meru or Everest, Caverned in night under the drifted snow, Or where that snow and winter's dreadful blast Beat down upon their naked bodies, know That day brings round the night, that before dawn His glory and his monuments are gone. ( K , p. 563)

60060/06/060 6006

A

a

600

A

60

1

O"?/ A

2

066/06

A

O6/O6O

6 O~O / 0 6

6/

60060/06/

0606/060 O6

A

A

3

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4

6 0 6 o~o" A

5

a

0000/06/06/

0606060/60600A 6 0 , 0 6 A 06 A o&o A 6 60/00660/0600

A

60/06/60060/6

A

A

6 7 8 9 10

0666/060/60/6/

11

66/06060/60

6/

12

0006/

13

06/66/06

A

A

000/60606/06

A

14

APPENDIX C The Statistical Tables

APPENDIX C

93

CHART I Analysis of the General Cadence Span and Kinds of Metrical Units

total lines

total units

disyllabic units iambs % spondees

pyrrhic

% A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P

trochees

%

%

The Wanderings... 1889

238

1143

747

65.35

30

2.62

7

.61

55

4.81

from The Rose 1892

155

687

571

83.11

30

4.36

16

2.32

38

5.81

from Crossways 1895

152

652

516

79.14

14

2.14

14

2.14

43

6.25

The Wind Among... 1899

139

567

395

69.66

14

2.46

16

2.82

32

5.64

Queen Maeve 1903

40

201

142

70.64

6

2.98

12

5.97

26

12.93

Baile and Aillinn 1903

55

120

77

64.16

8

6.66

10

8.33

13

10.83

In the Seven... 1903

74

370

265

71.62

11

2.97

17

4.59

51

13.78

The Shadowy... 1905

178

890

695

78.08

17

1.91

38

4.26

56

6.29

71

314

239

76.11

16

5.09

14

4.45

32

10.19

Responsibilities 1914

267

1046

864

82.60

34

3.25

15

1.43

67

6.40

The Wild Swans 1919

327

1312

1004

76.52

19

1.44

23

1.75

95

7.24

Michael Robartes 1920

132

569

409

71.88

10

1.75

9

1.58

60

10.54

The Tower 1928

361

1538

1259

81.85

45

2.92

37

2.40

101

6.56

The Winding Stair 1933

324

1390

1096

78.84

32

2.30

33

2.37

115

8.27

97

467

384

82.22

7

1.49

9

1.92

37

7.92

430

1815

1222

67.32

42

2.31

49

2.69

231

12.72

3040

13081

9885

75.56

335

2.56

319

2.43

1052

8.04

The Green Helmet 1910

A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

Percentages based on the total number of units in each block.

94

APPENDIX C

CHART I (cont.) monosyllabic units %

trisyllabic units ana- % dac-% pests tyls

amphibrachs

A

The Wanderings... 1889

1

.08

277

24.23

17

1.48

B

from The Rose 1892

1

.14

22

3.20

8

1.16

C

from Crossways 1895

6

.90

39

5.98

13

1.99

92

16.22

13

2.29

11

5.44

4

1.99

—

12

10.00

—

17

4.59

9

2.43

52

5.84

29

3.25

D

The Wind Among... 1899

E

Queen Maeve 1903

F

Baile and Aillinn 1903

G

—

—

—

In the Seven... 1903

—

H

The Shadowy... 1905

I

The Green Helmet 1910

1

.31

11

3.50

1

.31

J

Responsibilities 1914

4

.38

54

5.16

2

.19

6

2.24

K

The Wild Swans 1919

14

1.06

114

8.68

1

.07

39

2.97

L

Michael Robartes 1920

4

.70

59

10.38

5

.87

9

1.75

M

The Tower 1928

19

1.23

60

3.90

4

.26

11

.71

N

The Winding Stair 1933

59

4.24

44

3.16

3

.21

5

.35

O

A Full Moon 1935

3

.64

19

4.06

5

1.07

1

.21

P

Last Poems 1938-39

46

2.53

161

8.87

31

1.70

29

1.59

158

1.20

1044

7.98

52

.39

193

1.47

Totals

Percentages based on the total number of units in each block.

95

APPENDIX C CHART I (cont.) quadrisyllabic units 2nd-paeon 3rd-paeon A B

The Wanderings... 1889 from The Rose 1892

C

from Crossways 1895

D

The Wind Among... 1899

E

.76

5

.88

_

_

3

.33

_

_

_

3

.22

_

Michael Robartes 1920

4

.70

The Tower 1928

2

.13

1

.07

1

.21

4

.22

32

.24

H

The Shadowy... 1905

I

The Green Helmet 1910

J

Responsibilities 1914

K

The Wild Swans 1919

P

5

—

In the Seven... 1903

O

.30

.14

—

Queen Maeve 1903

G

N

2

1

6

—

Baile and Aillinn 1903

M

—

.26

—

F

L

—

3

4th-paeon

The Winding Stair 1933

2

A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

.14 —

—

—

4

.03

—

.52

—

Percentages based on the total number of units in each block.

_

—

1

.21 —

—

7

.05

96

APPENDIX C

CHART II Analysis of Lineal Construction Number of "feet" in the line A

total lines

The Wanderings... 1889

238

from The Rose 1892

155

C

from Crossways 1895

152

D

The Wind Among... 1899

139

E

Queen Maeve 1903

40

Baile and Aillinn 1903

55

In the Seven... 1903

74

The Shadowy... 1905

178

B

F G H I J K L M N O P

The Green Helmet 1910

dimeters %

trimeters %

_ —

3

—

71

pentameters %

4

1.68

98

41.17

69

28.99

23

14.83

63

40.64

60

38.70

6

3.94

87

57.23

52

39.39

46

33.09

53

38.12

32

23.02

1.97

—

—

—

—

—

— .

—

tetrameters %

40

—

—

55

100. —

—

8

11.26

100.

—

74

100.

176

98.87

5

7.04

9

12.67

49

69.01

—

76

28.46

153

57.30

22

8.23

1.52

93

28.44

108

33.02

113

34.55

Responsibilities 1914

267

The Wild Swans 1919

327

Michael Robartes 1920

132

30

22.72

30

22.72

72

54.54

The Tower 1928

361

91

25.20

86

23.82

184

50.96

The Winding Stair 1933

324

44

13.58

127

39.19

148

45.67

6

6.18

6

6.18

85

87.63

A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

—

5

5

97

1.54 —

430

13

3.02

82

19.06

133

30.93

202

46.97

3040

34

1.11

506

16.64

1008

32.82

1378

45.32

Percentages are based on the total number of lines in each block.

97

APPENDIX C

CHART n (cont.) hexameters A

67

28.15

9

5.80

from The Rose 1892

C

/o

The Wanderings... 1889

B

heptameters

%

from Crossways 1895

D

—

—

2

1.12

—

—

16

5.99

8

2.44

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

110

3.61

4

.13

The Wild Swans 1919

L

—

Responsibilities 1914

K

—

The Green Helmet 1910

J

—

The Shadowy... 1905

I

—

In the Seven... 1903

H

5.75

Baile and Aillinn 1903

G

8

Queen Maeve 1903

F

2.63

The Wind Among... 1899

E

4

Michael Robartes 1920

M The Tower 1928

N

The Winding Stair 1933

O

A Full Moon 1935

P

Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

98

APPENDIX C CHART n (cont.)

No. of Syllables

A B C D

G

In the Seven... 1903

H

The Shadowy... 1905

I

The Green Helmet 1910

N O P

6

2

18

4

1 2

1 2

The Tower 1928 1

10

4

1

A Full Moon 1935

17

14

7 1

5 1

51

18

5

4

48

36

4

1

12

8

9

1

9

55

19

5

3

6

34

2

1

1

4

1 29

Michael Robartes 1920

Totals

3

7

The Wild Swans 1919

Last Poems 1938-39

1

9

6

Responsibilities 1914

The Winding Stair 1933

7 8

3

The Wind Among... 1899

Baile and Aillinn 1903

M

1

from Crossways 1895

F

L

trimeters 4 5 6

from The Rose 1892

Queen Maeve 1903

K

6

The Wanderings... 1889

E

J

dimeters 3 4 5

1

3

7 2

1 11

34

2

18

10 4

3 33

269

5

143 43

1 1 13

2

99

APPENDIX C

CHART II (cont.) No. of Syllables

A B C D

8

9

10

The Wanderings... 1889

68

28

2

from The Rose 1892

55

7

1 3

from Crossways 1895

6

63

10

The Wind Among... 1899

2

38

13

44

10

1

E

Queen Maeve 1903

F

Baile and Aillinn 1903

G

In the Seven... 1903

H

The Shadowy... 1905

I

The Green Helmet 1910

J

tetrameters 7 6

11

12

13

3

1

1

1

1

9

Responsibilities 1914

1

130

21

1

K

The Wild Swans 1919

8

58

35

6

L

Michael Robartes 1920

3

14

11

2

11

62

13

40

71

12

1

4

1

1

28

53

33

15

3

2

100

194

34

7

M

The Tower 1928

N

The Winding Stair 1933

O P

1

A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals (1008) Percent

669 66.36

Percentage based on the total number of tetrameter lines.

1

3

100

APPENDIX C CHART II (cont.)

No. of Syllables

A

pentameters 10

12

11

The Wanderings... 1889

48

19

from The Rose 1892

53

7

from Crossways 1895

32

16

The Wind Among... 1899

20

10

E

Queen Maeve 1903

27

9

F

Baile and Aillinn 1903

G

In the Seven... 1903

49

22

H

The Shadowy... 1905

103

60

I

The Green Helmet 1910

37

11

J

Responsibilities 1914

19

3

K

The Wild Swans 1919

69

29

13

Michael Robartes 1920

45

20

5

The Tower 1928

154

25

5

N

The Winding Stair 1933

113

24

4

O

A Full Moon 1935

64

15

3

127

46

22

316

76

B C D

L M

P

Last Poems 1938-39

Totals (1378) Percent

959 69.50

Percentage based on the total number of pentameter lines.

13

10

14

14

101

APPENDIX C

CHART II (cont.) No. of Syllables

(iambic) hexameters 11

A

12

3

15

16

17

18

7

15

17

20

4

from The Rose

19

from Crossways 1895

D

15

16

2

1

1

2

1

1

The Wind Among... 1899

E

14

1

7

1892

C

14

The Wanderings... 1889

B

13

(anapestic) heptameters

5

2

1

6

1

3

1

18

11

Queen Maeve 1903

F

Baile and Aillinn 1903

G

In the Seven... 1903

H

The Shadowy... 1905

I

2

The Green Helmet 1910

J

Responsibilities 1914

K

The Wild Swans 1919

L

9 1

3

Michael Robartes 1920

M

The Tower 1928

N

The Winding Stair 1933

O

A Full Moon 1935

P

Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

1

22

16

17

20

4

1

102

APPENDIX C CHART I B Analysis of the General Cadence

Metrical Variations

A

total lines

%

T

%

1

2

%

3

%

4

%

5

%

27

11.34

15

6.30

2

.84

3

1.97

1

.56

1

.37

1

.75

—

—

The Wanderings... 1889

238

105

44.11

38

15.96

23

9.66

from The Rose 1892

155

44

28.38

38

24.51

6

3.87

C

from Crossways 1895

152

55

36.18

44

28.94

8

5.26

D

The Wind Among... 1899

139

62

44.60

50

35.97

12

8.63

E

Queen Maeve 1903

40

19

47.50

15

37.50

4

9.99

Baile and Aillinn 1903

55

12

21.81

11

20.00

1

1.81

In the Seven... 1903

74

27

36.43

21

28.37

6

8.10

The Shadowy... 1905

178

57

32.02

44

24.71

12

6.74

71

27

38.02

21

29.57

6

8.45

Responsibilities 1914

267

77

28.83

69

25.84

8

2.99

K

The Wild Swans 1919

327

124

37.92

106

32.41

18

5.50

L

Michael Robartes 1920

132

53

40.15

42

31.81

11

8.33

M

The Tower 1928

361

108

29.91

90

24.93

18

4.98

The Winding Stair 1933

324

78

24.07

69

21.29

9

2.77

97

37

38.14

29

29.89

6

6.18

2

2.06

430

171

39.76

141

32.79

29

6.74

1

.23

3040

1056

34.73

818

26.97

177

5.82

36

1.18

B

F G H I J

N O P

The Green Helmet 1910

A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

—

15

.49

Percentages are based on the total number of verse-lines in each block. Key to abbreviations: T = total number of lines marked by variation of the basic meter by a "loosening" of the iambic pattern; 1 = total number of lines marked by a single variation; 2 = total number of lines marked by two variations, etc.

2

.06

103

APPENDIX C CHART IV Analysis of the General Cadence Juxtaposition of Major Stresses A

The Wanderings...

B

from The Rose

C

from Crossways

D

The Wind Among...

1889

T

%

a

%

b

%

c

%

d

%

145

60.92

59

24.78

36

15.12

6

2.52

44

18.48

78

50.32

31

20.00

17

10.96

11

7.09

19

12.25

75

49.34

32

21.05

25

13.15

4

2.63

14

9.21

58

41.72

24

17.26

16

11.50

6

4.31

12

8.63

29

72.50

11

27.50

6

15.00

1

2.75

11

27.50

32

58.18

16

29.09

10

18.18

2

3.63

4

7.27

47

63.51

20

27.02

10

13.51

1

1.35

16

21.62

81

45.50

42

23.59

21

11.79

6

3.31

12

6.74

37

52.11

16

22.53

16

22.53

1

1.40

4

5.63

123

46.59

66

24.71

40

14.98

7

2.62

12

4.49

168

51.37

76

23.24

47

14.37

13

3.97

32

9.78

56

42.42

26

19.69

22

16.66

2

1.51

6

4.54

158

43.76

70

19.38

54

14.95

8

2.21

26

7.20

125

38.58

70

21.60

51

15.70

4

1.23

28

8.64

45

46.39

15

15.46

16

16.49

5

5.15

9

9.17

P Last Poems 1938-39 246 57.44 111 25.81 78 18.13 18 4.18 49 Totals (304011.) 1503 49.44 685 22.53 465 15.29 95 3.12 298 Percentages are based on the total number of lines in each block. Key to abbreviations: T = total number of lines containing juxtaposed major stresses; a = number of lines containing one pattern of two major stresses juxtaposed; b = number of lines containing one pattern of three major stresses juxtaposed; c = number of lines containing one pattern of more than three major stresses juxtaposed; d = number of lines containing two or more patterns of juxtaposed major stresses.

11.39 9.80

1892 1895 1899 E

Queen Maeve

F

Baile and Aillinn

G

In the Seven...

H

The Shadowy...

1903 1903 1903 1905 I

The Green Helmet 1910

J

Responsibilities 1914

K

The Wild Swans 1919

L

Michael Robartes

M

The Tower

N

The Winding Stair

1920 1928 1933 O

A Full Moon 1935

104

APPENDIX C

CHART V Types of Stanzaic Organization Number of verse-lines which participate in *serial total ballad verse con*system system struction lines constr. constr. A B C D E F G H I

The Wanderings... 1889 from The Rose 1892 from Crossways 1895 The Wind Among... 1899 Queen Maeve 1903 Baile and Aillinn 1903 In the Seven... 1903 The Shadowy... 1905 The Green Helmet 1910

238

238

155

88

27

152

117

35

139

139

40

40

55

55

74

74

178

178 49

Responsibilities 1914

267

267

K

The Wild Swans 1919

327

111

216

L

Michael Robartes 1920

132

52

80

M

The Tower 1928

361

225

104

N

The Winding Stair 1933

324

142

154

97

85

430

315

A Full Moon 1935

P

Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

3040

2175 71.54%

32 18

10

12 —

638 20.98%

Percentages are based on the total number of lines. *

40

22

71

J

O

ballad-like system constr.

See note 11, Chapter II for an explanation of these terms.

115

—

185 6.08%

42 1.38%

APPENDIX C

105

CHART VI Analysis of Single Rhythmic Groups Group Span in terms of Syllables

total lines

total rhythmic groups 1

%

%

%

%

A

The Wanderings... 1889

238

1049

170

16.20

405

38.60

319

30.40

109

10.38

B

from The Rose 1892

155

592

139

23.47

215

29.11

164

15.63

54

5.13

C

from Crossways 1895

152

568

112

19.71

229

40.31

132

23.23

65

11.44

D

The Wind Among... 1899

139

477

66

13.83

180

37.73

150

31.23

56

11.40

E

Queen Maeve 1903

40

153

31

20.26

44

28.75

34

22.22

30

19.60

F

Baile and Aillinn 1903

55

171

28

16.35

51

29.80

62

36.25

18

10.52

G

In the Seven... 1903

74

273

37

13.55

91

33.33

72

26.37

40

14.64

H

The Shadowy... 1905

178

666

69

10.36

249

37.38

184

27.62

95

14.26

I

The Green Helmet 1910

71

266

51

19.17

112

42.10

57

21.42

37

13.90

J

Responsibilities 1914

267

907

185

20.39

370

40.78

219

24.14

98

10.80

K

The Wild Swans 1919

327

1060

152

14.23

379

35.75

306

28.86

151

14.24

L

Michael Robartes 1920

132

446

72

16.14

143

32.06

127

26.23

63

14.12

M

The Tower 1928

361

1238

261

21.08

419

36.43

316

25.52

152

12.27

N

The Winding Stair 1933

324

1102

237

21.50

371

33.57

283

25.68

134

12.15

O

A Full Moon 1935

97

371

71

19.13

126

33.96

93

25.06

53

14.28

430

1495

283

18.92

545

36.45

364

24.34

192

12.84

3040

10834

1964

18.12

3929

36.26

2882

26.60

1347

12.43

P

Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

Percentages are based on the total number of rhythmic groups in each block. Key: 1 = single rhythmic groups composed of one syllable; 2 = single rhythmic groups composed of two syllables, etc.

106

APPENDIX C

CHART VI (cont.) Group Span in terms of Syllables A

5

%

6

%

7

%

8

%

TheWanderings... 1889

38

3.62

7

.66

1

.09

—

—

B

from The Rose 1892

18

1.71

2

.19

—

—

—

—

C

from Crossways 1895

25

4.40

5

.88

—

—

—

—

D

The Wind Among... 1899

22

4.82

2

.44

1

.20

—

—

E

Queen Maeve 1903

11

7.18

3

1.96

—

—

—

—

9

5.26

3

1.75

—

—

—

—

In the Seven... 1903

27

9.89

5

1.83

—

—

1

.36

The Shadowy... 1905

50

7.50

12

1.81

6

.90

1

.15

7

2.63

2

.75

—

—

—

—

Responsibilities 1914

32

3.52

3

.33

—

—

—

—

The Wild Swans 1919

51

4.81

19

1.79

2

.18

—

—

Michael Robartes 1920

26

5.82

13

2.91

1

.22

1

.22

The Tower 1928

63

5.08

20

1.61

6

.48

1

.08

The Winding Stair 1933

57

5.17

15

1.36

4

.36

1

.09

24

6.46

2

.53

2

.53

—

—

87

5.81

17

1.13

6

.40

1

.06

Totals 547 5.04 130 1.19 29 .26 Percentages based on the total number of rhythmic groups in each block.

6

.05

F G H I J K L M N O

Baile and Aillinn 1903

The Green Helmet 1910

A Full Moon 1935

P

Last Poems 1938-39

APPENDIX C

107

CHART VII Analysis of Single Rhythmic Groups

Direction of Cadence A

total lines

total rhythmic groups R

%

%

L

%

F

%

U

The Wanderings... 1889

238

1049

434

41.37

170

16.20

115

10.96

330

31.45

B

from The Rose 1892

155

592

251

42.39

139

23.47

51

8.61

151

25.59

C

from Crossways 1895

152

568

235

41.37

112

19.71

62

10.91

159

27.99

D

The Wind Among... 1899

139

477

239

50.10

66

13.83

45

9.41

127

26.62

E

Queen Maeve 1903

40

153

60

39.21

31

20.26

16

10.45

46

30.06

Baile and Aillinn 1903

55

171

80

46.78

28

16.35

17

9.94

46

26.90

In the Seven... 1903

74

273

114

41.75

37

13.55

30

10.98

92

33.69

The Shadowy... 1905

178

666

308

46.24

69

10.36

69

10.36

220

33.03

71

266

139

52.25

51

19.17

22

8.27

54

20.30

Responsibilities 1914

267

907

422

46.52

185

20.39

89

9.81

211

23.26

The Wild Swans 1919

327

1060

478

45.09

152

14.33

117

11.03

313

29.52

Michael Robartes 1920

132

446

163

36.54

72

16.14

61

13.67

150

33.63

The Tower 1928

361

1238

475

38.36

261

21.08

152

12.27

350

28.27

The Winding Stair 1933

324

1102

419

38.02

237

21.50

118

10.70

328

29.76

97

371

151

40.70

71

19.13

35

9.43

114

30.75

430

1495

602

40.26

283

18.92

186

12.44

424

28.36

3040

10834

4570

42.18

1964

18.12

1185

10.93

3115

28.75

F G H I J K L M N O P

The Green Helmet 1910

A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

Percentages are based on the total number of rhythmic groups in each block. Key to abbreviations: R = rising; L = level; F = falling; U = undulating.

108

APPENDIX C

CHART VIII Analysis of Group Cadence

Span and Direction A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P

total lines

total rhythmic 1 syllable groups L %

2 syllables R %

%

R

%

The Wanderings... 1889

238

1049

170

16.20

308

29.36

97

9.24

95

9.05

from The Rose 1892

155

592

139

23.47

175

29.56

40

6.75

48

8.10

from Crossways 1895

152

568

112

19.71

174

30.63

55

9.68

33

5.80

The Wind Among... 1899

139

477

66

13.83

142

29.76

38

7.96

67

14.04

Queen Maeve 1903

40

153

31

20.26

31

20.26

13

8.49

12

7.84

Baile and Aillinn 1903

55

171

28

16.35

40

23.39

11

6.43

25

14.61

In the Seven... 1903

74

273

37

13.55

69

25.27

22

8.05

22

8.05

The Shadowy... 1905

178

666

69

10.36

200

30.03

49

7.35

59

8.85

71

266

51

19.17

96

36.09

16

6.01

27

10.15

Responsibilities 1914

267

907

185

20.39

293

32.30

77

8.48

84

9.26

The Wild Swans 1919

327

1060

152

14.33

291

27.45

88

8.30

123

11.60

Michael Robartes 1920

132

446

72

16.14

96

21.52

47

10.53

44

9.86

The Tower 1928

361

1238

261

21.08

306

24.71

113

9.12

110

8.88

The Winding Stair 1933

324

1102

237

21.50

291

26.40

80

7.25

92

8.34

97

371

71

19.13

104

28.03

22

5.92

24

6.46

430

1495

283

18.92

413

27.62

132

8.82

128

8.56

3040

10834

1964

18.12

3029

27.95

900

8.30

993

9.16

The Green Helmet 1910

A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

Percentages based on the total number of single rhythmic groups in each block.

109

APPENDIX C CHART VIII (cont.) (3) syllables

%

U A

4 syllables

%

F

%

R

%

U

%

F

The Wanderings... 1889

206

19.63

18

1.71

25

2.38

84

8.00

from The Rose 1892

107

18.07

9

1.52

26

4.39

26

4.39

from Crossways 1895

93

16.37

6

1.05

26

4.57

39

6.86

—

—

The Wind Among... 1899

76

15.93

7

1.46

28

5.87

28

5.87

—

—

Queen Maeve 1903

19

12.41

3

1.96

14

9.15

16

10.45

—

—

Baile and Aillinn 1903

31

18.12

6

3.50

13

7.60

5

2.92

—

—

G

In the Seven... 1903

43

15.75

7

2.56

16

5.86

23

8.42

H

The Shadowy... 1905

105

15.76

20

3.00

42

6.30

53

7.95

—

—

24

9.02

6

2.25

15

5.63

22

8.27

—

—

Responsibilities 1914

123

13.56

12

1.32

44

4.85

54

5.95

—

—

The Wild Swans 1919

155

14.62

28

2.64

57

5.37

93

8.77

1

.09

71

15.91

12

2.69

18

4.03

43

9.64

2

.44

The Tower 1928

169

13.65

37

2.98

58

4.68

93

7.51

1

.08

The Winding Stair 1933

156

14.15

35

3.17

34

3.08

97

8.80

3

.27

56

15.09

13

3.50

21

5.66

32

8.62

185

12.37

51

3.41

52

3.47

137

9.16

3

.20

1619

14.94

270

2.49

489

4.51

845

7.79

13

.11

B C D E F

I J K L M N O P

The Green Helmet 1910

Michael Robartes 1920

A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

Percentages based on the total number of single rhythmic groups in each block.

2

1

—

.33

.36

—

APPENDIX C

110

CHART IX Analysis of Single Rhythmic Groups

Subordinate Accentuation A

D

The Wind Among...

E

Queen Maeve

1899 1903

F

Baile and Aillinn

G

In the Seven...

H

The Shadowy...

1903 1903 1905

The Wild Swans 1919

L

608

57.93

592

309

52.19

283

47.80

568

264

46.47

304

53.52

477

207

43.39

270

56.60

153

91

59.47

62

40.52

171

96

56.19

75

43.68

273

172

63.00

101

36.99

666

419

61.41

247

37.08

266

126

47.36

140

52.63

907

429

47.29

478

52.70

1060

557

52.54

503

47.45

446

218

48.87

228

51.12

1238

651

52.58

587

47.41

1102

612

55.44

490

44.46

371

203

54.71

168

45.28

1495

820

54.84

675

45.15

10834

5615

51.82

5219

48.17

Responsibilities 1914

K

42.04

The Green Helmet 1910

J

441

from Crossways 1895

I

1049

from The Rose 1892

C

single rhythmic groups *with "without subordinate subordinate accentuation accentuation

TheWanderings... 1889

B

total rhythmic groups

Michael Robartes 1920

M The Tower 1928

N

The Winding Stair 1933

O

A Full Moon 1935

P

Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

Percentages based on the total number of rhythmic groups in each block. Key: * 6 o 6, or o 6 6 o, for example; ** o 6, or o 6 o, for example.

APPENDIX C

111

CHART X Analysis of Rhythmic Groups

Patterns of Cadence A

6

3.87

152

12

7.82

10

6.57

139

12

8.63

7

5.03

40

2

5.00

3

7.50

55

2

3.63

1

1.81

74

3

4.05

7

9.45

178

14

7.86

15

8.42

71

13

18.30

5

7.04

267

15

5.61

16

5.99

327

15

4.58

18

5.50

132

8

6.06

5

3.78

361

27

7.47

10

2.77

324

20

6.17

7

2.16

97

15

15.46

9

9.27

430

34

7.90

27

.88

3040

210

6.90

148

4.86

The Wild Swans 1919

L

5.16

Responsibilities 1914

K

8

The Green Helmet 1910

J

155

The Shadowy... 1905

I

.83

In the Seven... 1903

H

2

Baile and Aillinn 1903

G

4.20

Queen Maeve 1903

F

10

The Wind Among... 1899

E

238

from Crossways 1895

D

%

from The Rose 1892

C

Number of lines containing a(n) choriambic adonic pattern % pattern

The Wanderings... 1889

B

total lines

Michael Robartes 1920

M The Tower 1928

N

The Winding Stair 1933

O

A Full Moon 1935

P

Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

Percentages based on the total number of lines.

112

APPENDIX C

CHART XI Analysis of Group Cadence Direction of Group Cadence at Line Ends A

total lines

R

%

L

%

U

%

F

%

The Wanderings... 1889

238

125 52.52

82 34.45

12

5.04

19

7.98

from The Rose 1892

155

82 52.90

62 40.00

6

3.87

5

3.22

from Crossways 1895

152

62 40.78

59 38.81

21

13.81

10

6.57

The Wind Among... 1899

139

86 61.87

29 20.86

15 10.79

9

6.47

Queen Maeve 1903

40

20 50.00

8 20.00

3

7.50

Baile and Aillinn 1903

55

36 65.45

13 23.63

1

1.81

5

9.09

In the Seven... 1903

74

36 48.64

12 16.21

21 28.37

5

6.75

The Shadowy... 1905

178

91 51.12

25

40 22.47

22

12.35

71

57 80.28

11 15.49

2

2.81

1

1.40

Responsibilities 1914

267

171 64.04

79 29.58

14

5.24

3

1.12

The Wild Swans 1919

327

186 56.88

66 20.18

55

16.81

20

6.11

Michael Robartes 1920

132

68 51.51

30 22.72

23

17.42

11

8.33

The Tower 1928

361

184 50.96

112 31.02

42

11.63

23

6.37

N

The Winding Stair 1933

324

190 58.64

81 25.00

34

10.49

19

5.86

O

A Full Moon 97

60 61.85

29 29.89

7

7.21

1

1.03

430

231 53.72

96 22.32

78

18.13

25

5.81

Totals 3040 1685 55.42 795 26.15 379 Percentages are based on the total number of lines in each block.

12.46

181

5.95

B C D E F G H I J K L M

The Green Helmet 1910

1935 P

9

22.50

14.04

Last Poems 1938-39

APPENDIX C

113

CHART X I (cont.) R and L

%

U and F

%

A

The Wanderings... 1889

207

86.97

31

13.02

B

from The Rose 1892

144

92.90

11

7.09

C

from Crossways 1895

121

79.59

31

20.38

D

The Wind Among... 1899

115

82.73

24

17.26

E

Queen Maeve 1903

29

72.50

11

27.50

F

Baile and Aillinn 1903

39

89.08

6

10.90

G

In the Seven... 1903

48

64.85

26

35.12

H

The Shadowy... 1905

116

65.16

62

34.82

68

95.77

3

4.21

Responsibilities 1914

250

93.62

17

6.36

The Wild Swans 1919

252

77.06

75

22.92

98

74.23

34

25.75

The Tower 1928

296

81.98

65

18.00

The Winding Stair 1933

271

83.64

53

16.35

89

91.74

8

8.24

327

76.04

103

23.94

2470

81.57

560

18.41

I J K L M N O P

The Green Helmet 1910

Michael Robartes 1920

A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

Percentages are based on the total number of lines in each block.

114

APPENDIX C

CHART X n

Analysis of Line-patterns

total lines

Diversity Number of patterns that occur only once

Identity Number of lines constructed according to the three line-patterns of highest incidence 1

%

2

%

3

%

total %

A

The Wanderings... 1889

238

99

41.59

7

2.94

7

2.94

7

2.94

21

8.82

B

from The Rose 1892

155

99

63.80

7

4.51

5

3.22

4

2.58

16

10.32

C

from Crossways 1895

152

58

38.15

12

7.89

8

5.26

8

5.26

28

18.42

D

The Wind Among... 1899

139

31

22.30

13

9.35

8

5.75

7

5.03

28

20.14

E

Queen Maeve 1903

40

29

72.50

4

10.00

3

7.50

2

5.00

9

20.25

F

Baile and Aillinn 1903

55

18

32.72

6

10.90

6

10.90

4

7.27

16

29.09

G

In the Seven... 1903

74

37

50.00

5

6.75

5

6.75

4

5.40

14

18.91

The Shadowy... 1905

178

64

35.91

9

5.05

8

4.49

7

3.93

24

13.48

71

34

47.88

5

7.04

5

7.04

4

5.63

14

19.71

H I

The Green Helmet 1910

J

Responsibilities 1914

267

86

32.20

27

10.11

13

4.86

13

4.86

53

19.84

K

The Wild Swans 1919

327

70

21.40

22

6.72

21

6.42

16

4.89

59

18.04

L

Michael Robartes 1920

132

52

39.39

11

8.33

7

5.30

6

4.54

24

18.18

M

The Tower 1928

361

86

23.82

18

4.98

16

4.43

13

3.60

47

13.01

N

The Winding Stair 1933

324

72

22.22

18

5.55

12

3.70

10

3.08

40

12.34

O

A Full Moon 1935

97

31

31.95

7

7.21

5

5.15

3

3.08

15

15.46

P

Last Poems 1938-39

430

107

24.88

21

4.88

20

4.65

13

3.02

54

12.55

Totals Percentages based on the total number of lines in each block. For a definition of the term "line pattern" see Note 14, Chapter III.

115

APPENDIX C CHART XIII Analysis of Lineal Construction

Group Composition

number of groups in the line

total 11.

gr.

1

%

1+

%

2

%

2+

%

3

%

A

The Wanderings... 1889

238

1049

—

—

—

—

5

2.10

—

—

48

20.16

B

from The Rose 1892

155

592

—

—

—

—

8

5.16

—

—

48

30.96

C

from Crossways 1895

152

568

—

—

—

—

5

3.28

—

—

60

39.47

D

The Wind Among... 1899

139

477

—

—

—

—

16

11.51

—

—

68

48.92

E

Queen Maeve 1903

40

153

—

—

—

—

2

5.00

—

—

13

32.50

F

Baile and Aillinn 1903

55

171

—

—

—

—

9

16.36

—

—

32

58.18

G

In the Seven... 1903

74

173

—

—

—

—

2

2.70

—

—

32

43.24

H

The Shadowy... 1905

178

666

—

—

—

—

11

6.17

—

—

54

30.33

71

266

—

—

—

—

8

11.26

—

—

18

25.35

Responsibilities 1914

267

907

—

—

—

—

35

13.10

—

—

118

44.19

K

The Wild Swans 1919

327

1060

2

.61

1

.30

62

18.96

—

—

147

44.95

L

Michael Robartes 1920

132

446

—

—

—

—

20

15.15

—

—

62

46.96

M

The Tower 1928

361

1238

—

—

2

.55

45

12.46

4

1.10

143

39.61

N

The Winding Stair 1933

324

1102

—

—

2

.61

47

14.50

4

1.23

126

38.88

O

A Full Moon 1935

97

371

—

—

—

6

6.18

1

1.03

26

26.80

P

Last Poems 1938-39

430

1495

2

.46

—

—

60

13.95

3

.69

156

36.27

3040

10834

4

.13

5

.16

341

11.21

13

.42

1151

37.86

I J

The Green Helmet 1910

Totals

Percentages are based on the total number of lines in each block.

116

APPENDIX C CHART XIII (cont.) number of groups in the line 4 3+ % 4+ /o

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P

The Wanderings... 1889 from The Rose 1892

1 —

from Crossways 1895 The Wind Among... 1899 Queen Maeve 1903

.42 —

2

1.31

The Shadowy... 1905

37.81

%

6

/o

35

14.70

52

21.84

5

%

7

6 2.52

72 46.45

—

—

18

11.61

9

5.80

60

39.47

—

—

20

13.15

4

2.63

4

2.87

—

—

1 25.00

—

—

—

—

1

.65

—

— .

38

27.33

—

—

13

9.35

—

—

16 40.00

—

—

8

20.00

13

23.63

—

1

1.81

37.83

11

14.86

1

1.35

24

13.48

3

1.68

—

.—

—

—

Baile and Aillinn 1903 In the Seven... 1903

90

%

—

—

— .

28

—

—

86 48.31

—

31

43.66

12

16.90

2

2.81

The Green Helmet 1910

—

—

—

Responsibilities 1914

2

.74

89

33.33

19

7.11

3

1.12

The Wild Swans 1919

1

.30

83

25.38

30

9.17

1

.30

—

—

— .

32

24.24

16

12.12

2

1.51

—

—

37

10.24

2

.55

—

—

.92

32

9.87

2

.61

—

—

—

23

23.71

—

—

—

—

—

Michael Robartes 1920 The Tower 1928

6

1.65

122

33.79

The Winding Stair 1933

1

.30

107

33.02

A Full Moon 1935

1

1.03

40

41.23

Last Poems 1938-39

5

1.16

141

32.79

4

.93

56

13.02

3

.69

19

.62

1048

34.47

7

.23

355

11.67

89

2.91

Totals

—

—

3 —

Percentages are based on the total number of lines in each block.

—

1

8

.37

.26

APPENDIX C

117

CHART XIV Analysis of the Speech-unit Span of the Speechunits in Relation to the Verse-lines A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P

The Wanderings... 1889 from The Rose 1892 from Crossways 1895 The Wind Among... 1899 Queen Maeve 1903 Baile and Aillinn 1903 In the Seven... 1903 The Shadowy... 1905 The Green Helmet 1910 Responsibilities 1914 The Wild Swans 1919 Michael Robartes 1920 The Tower 1928 The Winding Stair 1933 A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

total verse lines

total fractional speech speech units units %

co-lineal speech units %

multi-lineal speech units %

extra-lineal speech units %

238

334

216

64.67

65

19.46

12

3.59

28

8.38

155

170

57

33.52

92

54.11

13

7.65

8

4.70

152

172

72

41.86

68

39.53

9

5.23

23

13.37

139

124

35

28.22

59

47.58

20

16.12

10

8.06

40

38

17

44.73

8

21.05

5

13.16

8

21.05

55

36

6

16.66

14

38.88

8

22.23

8

22.22

74

57

18

31.57

13

22.80

5

8.77

20

35.08

178

226

139

61.50

49

21.68

8

3.54

30

13.27

71

76

34

44.73

16

21.05

4

6.26

20

26.31

267

223

66

29.59

86

38.56

37

16.59

32

14.34

327

254

76

29.92

83

32.67

52

20.47

43

16.92

132

102

34

33.33

26

25.49

29

5.57

13

12.74

361

291

99

34.00

76

26.11

63

21.64

53

18.21

324

277

88

31.76

103

37.18

52

18.77

32

11.55

97

91

37

40.65

20

21.97

14

15.39

18

19.78

430

416

164

39.42

149

35.81

65

15.63

38

9.13

3040

2887

1157

40.07

927 (950

32.10 32.90)

396

13.72

384

13.30

Percentages based on the total number of speech-units. Fractional speech-units measure less than a single verse-line in span; co-lineal speechunits are equal to the verse-line; multi-lineal speech-units are composed of a series of verse-lines; extra lineal speech-units are composed of a single verse-line (or a series of such lines) and a lineal fraction. 23 of the co-lineal units are composed of two half-line units; these are not included in the total 927.

118

APPENDIX C CHART XV Analysis of the Speech-unit

Specification of Span A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P

The Wanderings. 1889 from The Rose 1892 from Crossways 1895 The Wind Among... 1899 Queen Maeve 1903 Baile and Aillinn 1903 In the Seven... 1903 The Shadowy... 1905 The Green Helmet 1910 Responsibilities 1914 The Wild Swans 1919 Michael Robartes 1920 The Tower 1928 The Winding Stair 1933 A Full Moon 1935 Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

total fractional speech-units speech units - i l . % il.

334

99

29.64

76

170

27

15.88

22

172

34

19.76

11

124 38 36 57 226 76

16

12.90

6

15.78

1 6

2.77 10.52

71

31.41

21

27.63

6

%

22.75 12.94 /I

1 2 6 20 4

6.39 ( 6.97) 4.83 2.63 5.55 10.52 8.84 5.26

i+1.

34 8 23 10 9 2 4 42 6

/3 /3 /I /I 12 16 /3

223

30

13.45

8

3.58

23

254

39

15.35

19

7.48

18

102

12

11.76

7

6.86

15

291

39

13.40 (13.74) 14.80

19

6.52

32

11

3.97

/I

277

41

91

18

19.78

7

7.69

416

79

19.23

28

6.73

2887

539 /I

18.66 247 (18.70) n

P

32

15

P

/4 10 12 48 19

%

co-lineal speechunits %

10.17 (12.27) 4.70

65

19.46 /13 (23.35) 92 54.11

13.37 (15.11) 8.06 (10.48) 23.68 (26.31) 5.55 ( 8.33) 7.01 (10.52) 18.58 (21.23) 7.89 (11.84) 10.31 (12.55) 7.09

68

39.53

59

47.58

8

21.05

14

38.88 /I

22.80 (24.56) 21.68

16 12 86 12 83

21.05 (23.68) 38.56 (39.46) 32.67

13 49

14.70

26

25.49

10.99 (13.40) 11.55 (12.99) 10.98 (13.18) 11.53 (13.70)

76 /I 103 /I 20 12 149

26.11 (26.46) 37.18 (37.90) 21.97 (24.17) 35.81

32.10 8.55 316 10.94 927 /23 (32.90) 153 (12.78) ( 8.59)

Percentages are based on the total number of speech-units. Numbers below the slash mark indicate "constructed" units, that is, units that cross the line limit.

119

APPENDIX C CHART XV (cont.) extra-lineal speech-units 1-i % A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P

The Wanderings... 1889

1}

%

li+ %

multi-lineal extra-lineal. 211. % 22i

%

12

3.59

8 2.39

6

1.79

10

2.99

from The Rose 1892

4

2.35

1

.58

3

1.76

11

6.47

—

—

—

—

from Crossways 1895

14

8.13

3

1.74

5 2.90

9

5.23

—

—

—

—

The Wind Among... 1899

8

6.45

18 14.51

—

—

—

—

Queen Maeve 1903

4

10.52

Baile and Aillinn 1903

3

In the Seven... 1903

5

The Shadowy... 1905

.80

1 2.63

2

5.26

5

13.15

1

2.63

8.33

1 2.77

3 8.33

2

5.55

1

2.77

8.77

3 5.26

2

3.50

4

7.01

6

10.52

5 2.21

8

3.53

10

4.42

5.26

4

5.26

3

3.94

—

11 4.93

22

9.86

4

1.79

—

3.54

34

13.38

6

2.36

24 23.52

4

3.92

—

—

—

11 4.86

—

9

11.84

Responsibilities 1914

8

3.58

6 2.69

The Wild Swans 1919

10

3.93

11 4.33

9

Michael Robartes 1920

6

5.88

—

3 2.94

The Tower 1928

20

6.87

10 3.43

The Winding Stair 1933

12

4.33

4

6 18

Last Poems 1938-39

Totals

139

.29

1

—

The Green Helmet 1910

A Full Moon 1935

1

4

5.26

—

4

—

1 1.75 3

1.32 .—

3

.18

14 4.81

43

14.77

7

2.40

1.44

8 2.88

39

14.77

5

1.80

6.59

5 5.49

4 4.39

13 14.28

2

2.19

4.32

6

6

1.44

57

4

.96

1

.24

86 2.97

303

10.49 54

1.87

9

31

1.44

4.81 74 2.56

Percentages are based on the total number of speech-units.

13.70

—

1 —

.36 —

120

APPENDIX C

CHART XV (cont.) extralineal 2i+ % A

The Wanderings...

B

from The Rose

1889 1892 C

2

.59

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

2

1.17

—

—

—

—

—

—

1

.58

—

—

—

_

1

.80

—

—

—

—

_

_

_

_

1

l8

.80

.80

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

—

—

3

8.33

—

2

3.50

—

—

l 3 -*

1

.44

—

—

—

—

3

8.33

—

—

1.75

1

1.75

—

—

_

_

In the Seven... The Shadowy... _

_

The Green Helmet 1910

J

_

Baile and Aillinn

1905 I

_

Queen Maeve

1903 H

_

The Wind Among...

1903 G

extra- and multi-lineal 4+ %

from Crossways

1903 F

%

multilineal 411. %

.29

1899 E

extralineal 3+

1

1895 D

multilineal 3 11. %

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

Responsibilities 2

.89

14

6.27

13*+

.44

1

.44

—

—

12

4.72

l3*

.39

6

2.36

2 4l+ 3