Premonition
He said, "Good-night, my heart is light,To-morrow morn at dayWe two together in the dewShall forth and fare away.
"We shall go down, the halls of dawnTo find the doors of joy;We shall not part again, dear heart."And he laughed out like a boy.
He turned and strode down the blue roadAgainst the western skyWhere the last line of sunset glowedAs sullen embers die.
The night reached out her kraken armsTo clutch him as he passed,And for one sudden momentMy soul shrank back aghast.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- kraken n.
- A fabulous Scandinavian sea monster, often represented as resembling an island, but sometimes as resembling an immense octopus. [Prob. from OSw. krake, or ODan. krage the trunk of a tree, the branches of which are not entirely cut off, to which it was likened by the Norwegian mariners.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Premonition is in the public domain. This text is taken from More Songs From Vagabondia, Project Gutenberg ebook #18007; 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, Premonition, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/premonition.html, id L24729.
Form and metre
Premonition is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 light · dayA · dew · awayA
- 2 -A-A dawn · joyA · heart · boyA
- 3 ABAB roadA · skyB · glowedA · dieB
- 4 -A-A arms · passedA · moment · aghastA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| He said, "Good-night, my heart is light, | 8 | ········ |
| To-morrow morn at day | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| We two together in the dew | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Shall forth and fare away. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| "We shall go down, the halls of dawn | 8 | ········ |
| To find the doors of joy; | 6 | ······ |
| We shall not part again, dear heart." | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And he laughed out like a boy. | 7 | ······· |
| He turned and strode down the blue road | 8 | ········ |
| Against the western sky | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Where the last line of sunset glowed | 8 | ·····/·· |
| As sullen embers die. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The night reached out her kraken arms | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To clutch him as he passed, | 6 | ······ |
| And for one sudden moment | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| My soul shrank back aghast. | 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.