The Campfire of the Sun
Lo, now, the journeying sun,Another day's march done,Kindles his campfire at the edge of night!And in the twilight paleAbove his crimson trail,The stars move out their cordons still and bright.
Now in the darkening hushA solitary thrushSings on in silvery rapture to the deep;While brooding on her best,The wandering soul has rest,And earth receives her sacred gift of sleep.
About this text
The Campfire of the Sun 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, The Campfire of the Sun, in Later Poems (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #33417, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-later-poems/the-campfire-of-the-sun.html, id L11050.
Form and metre
The Campfire of the Sun is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AABCCB sunA · doneA · nightB · paleC · trailC · brightB
- 2 AABCCB hushA · thrushA · deepB · bestC · restC · sleepB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Lo, now, the journeying sun, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Another day's march done, | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| Kindles his campfire at the edge of night! | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| And in the twilight pale | 6 | ···/·· |
| Above his crimson trail, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The stars move out their cordons still and bright. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Now in the darkening hush | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| A solitary thrush | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
| Sings on in silvery rapture to the deep; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| While brooding on her best, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The wandering soul has rest, | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| And earth receives her sacred gift of sleep. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
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.