Night
'Neath my moon what doest thou,With a somewhat paler browThan she giveth to the ocean?He, without a pulse or motion,Muttering low before her stands,Lifting his invoking handsLike a seer before a sprite,To catch her oracles of light:But thy soul out-trembles nowMany pulses on thy brow.Where be all thy laughters clear,Others laughed alone to hear?Where thy quaint jests, said for fame?Where thy dances, mixed with game?Where thy festive companies,Mooned o'er with ladies' eyesAll more bright for thee, I trow?'Neath my moon what doest thou?
Words in this poem
- sprite n.
- A spirit; a soul; a shade; also, an apparition. See Spright. [OE. sprit, F. esprit, fr. L. spiritus. See Spirit, and cf. Sprightly.]
- quaint a.
- Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to ]
- mooned a.
- Of or resembling the moon; symbolized by the moon.
- trow v. i.
- To believe; to trust; to think or suppose. [OE. trowen, AS.treówan to trust, believe, fr. treów trust, treówe true, faithful. See True.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #33363; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Night, in Lady Geraldine's Courtship, and Other Poems (1844), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #33363, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/barrett-browning-poems-2/night.html, id L24828.
Form and metre
Night is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 89% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDAAEEFFGG-A thouA · browA · oceanB · motionB · standsC · handsC · spriteD · lightD · nowA · browA · clearE · hearE · fameF · gameF · companiesG · eyesG · trow · thouA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| 'Neath my moon what doest thou, | 6 | ······ |
| With a somewhat paler brow | 7 | ··//··· |
| Than she giveth to the ocean? | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| He, without a pulse or motion, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Muttering low before her stands, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Lifting his invoking hands | 7 | /˘·˘/˘· |
| Like a seer before a sprite, | 7 | ······· |
| To catch her oracles of light: | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| But thy soul out-trembles now | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Many pulses on thy brow. | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Where be all thy laughters clear, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Others laughed alone to hear? | 7 | /˘·˘/·· |
| Where thy quaint jests, said for fame? | 7 | ······· |
| Where thy dances, mixed with game? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Where thy festive companies, | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Mooned o'er with ladies' eyes | 7 | ·˘··/·· |
| All more bright for thee, I trow? | 7 | ······· |
| 'Neath my moon what doest thou? | 6 | ······ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.