Fireflies
The fireflies across the duskAre flashing signals through the gloom--Courageous messengers of lightThat dare immensities of doom.
About the seeding meadow-grass,Like busy watchmen in the street,They come and go, they turn and pass,Lighting the way for Beauty's feet.
Or up they float on viewless wingsTo twinkle high among the trees,And rival with soft glimmeringsThe shining of the Pleiades.
The stars that wheel above the hillAre not more wonderful to see,Nor the great tasks that they fulfillMore needed in eternity.
Words in this poem
- viewless a.
- Not perceivable by the eye; invisible; unseen.
- twinkle v. i.
- To open and shut the eye rapidly; to blink; to wink. [OE. twinklen, AS. twinclian; akin to OE. twinken to blink, wink, G. zwinken, zwinkern, and perhaps to E. twitch.]
- pleiades n.
- The seven daughters of Atlas and the nymph Pleione, fabled to have been made by Jupiter a constellation in the sky.
- fulfill v. t.
- To fill up; to make full or complete. [OE. fulfillen, fulfullen, AS. fulfyllan; ful full + fyllan to fill. See Full, a., and Fill, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fireflies is in the public domain. This text is taken from Later Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #33417; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, Fireflies, in Later Poems (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #33417, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-later-poems/fireflies.html, id L11030.
Form and metre
Fireflies is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 -A-A dusk · gloomA · light · doomA
- 2 ABAB grassA · streetB · passA · feetB
- 3 ABAB wingsA · treesB · glimmeringsA · pleiadesB
- 4 A-A- hillA · see · fulfillA · eternity
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The fireflies across the dusk | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Are flashing signals through the gloom-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Courageous messengers of light | 8 | ˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| That dare immensities of doom. | 7 | ······· |
| About the seeding meadow-grass, | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| Like busy watchmen in the street, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| They come and go, they turn and pass, | 8 | ········ |
| Lighting the way for Beauty's feet. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Or up they float on viewless wings | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To twinkle high among the trees, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And rival with soft glimmerings | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| The shining of the Pleiades. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The stars that wheel above the hill | 8 | ········ |
| Are not more wonderful to see, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Nor the great tasks that they fulfill | 8 | ······˘/ |
| More needed in eternity. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
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.