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This is a beginning of W.B.Yeats's poem Under Ben Bulben:

Swear by what the Sages spoke
Round the Mareotic Lake
That the Witch of Atlas knew,
Spoke and set the cocks a-crow.

What is the function of a- in the phrase cocks a-crow? What is the general structure and meaning?
I think this function is different from what explained in this link

I guess here a- applied in the meaning of of. The Oxford dictionary indicates this meaning and brings the example of anew.

Connoisseur
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  • Give us more context, please. Also a link to the source would be helpful, including information about when it was written. – Davo Mar 12 '19 at 16:51
  • It is the same as 'a-carolling' as in the link, meaning that they were doing the action specified. – Kate Bunting Mar 12 '19 at 17:39
  • The 'duplicate' answer deals with a-(verb)-ing pretty well; and a brief answer from Barrie England mentions six categories of a- in the OED (which we can't afford), but this is quite different. It obviously doesn't belong with aloft, athwart, astern, but perhaps with "abed" which is not so rare. – Hugh Mar 12 '19 at 17:44
  • And possibly "asleep" – Hugh Mar 12 '19 at 17:51
  • Ok. So can you tell me who is the subject of the last line. Who set the crows? Sages? – Connoisseur Mar 12 '19 at 18:01
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    From the OED: "2. With nouns and verb stems, forming adverbs (and derived adjectives and prepositions) expressing activity, position, condition, etc. Now chiefly poetic." One of their citations (Robert Browning): The other man, a-grime With guilt. – Peter Shor Mar 12 '19 at 18:04

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