Laurel · Bliss Carman · Later Poems

Spring Night

Bliss Carman (1861–1929) · 1921

iambic tetrameter · 16 lines · from Later Poems

In the wondrous star-sown night,In the first sweet warmth of spring,I lie awake and listenTo hear the glad earth sing.

I hear the brook in the woodMurmuring, as it goes,The song of the happy journeyOnly the wise heart knows.

I hear the trilling noteOf the tree-frog under the hill,And the clear and watery trebleOf his brother, silvery shrill.

And then I wander awayThrough the mighty forest of Sleep,To follow the fairy musicTo the shore of an endless deep.

Words in this poem

wondrous adv.: In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
trilling n.: One of tree children born at the same birth. Wright. [Cf. G. drilling.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Spring Night 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, Spring Night, in Later Poems (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #33417, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-later-poems/spring-night.html, id L11020.

Form and metre

Spring Night is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% 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 night · spring^A · listen · sing^A
2 -A-A wood · goes^A · journey · knows^A
3 -AAA note · hill^A · treble^A · shrill^A
4 -A-A away · sleep^A · music · deep^A

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
In the wondrous star-sown night,	7	··/˘···
In the first sweet warmth of spring,	7	·······
I lie awake and listen	7	··˘/·/˘
To hear the glad earth sing.	6	······
I hear the brook in the wood	7	·······
Murmuring, as it goes,	6	/˘˘···
The song of the happy journey	8	····/˘/˘
Only the wise heart knows.	6	/˘····
I hear the trilling note	6	···/˘·
Of the tree-frog under the hill,	8	········
And the clear and watery treble	9	····/˘˘/˘
Of his brother, silvery shrill.	8	··/˘/˘˘·
And then I wander away	7	···/˘˘/
Through the mighty forest of Sleep,	8	··/˘/˘··
To follow the fairy music	8	·/˘·/˘/˘
To the shore of an endless deep.	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.

More by Bliss Carman

Later Poems