At Sunset
Into the sunset's turquoise margeThe moon dips, like a pearly bargeEnchantment sails through magic seasTo faeryland Hesperides,Over the hills and away.
Into the fields, in ghost-gray gown,The young-eyed Dusk comes slowly down;Her apron filled with stars she stands,And one or two slip from her handsOver the hills and away.
Above the wood's black caldron bendsThe witch-faced Night and, muttering, blendsThe dew and heat, whose bubbles makeThe mist and musk that haunt the brakeOver the hills and away.
Oh, come with me, and let us goBeyond the sunset lying low;Beyond the twilight and the night,Into Love's kingdom of long light,Over the hills and away.
Words in this poem
- marge n.
- Border; margin; edge; verge. [F. marge. See Margin.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- caldron n.
- A large kettle or boiler of copper, brass, or iron. [OE. caldron, caudron, caudroun, OF. caudron, chauderon, F. chaudron, an aug. of F. chaudière, LL. caldaria, fr. L. caldarius suitable for warming, fr. caldus, c]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At Sunset is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, At Sunset, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/at-sunset.html, id L10923.
Form and metre
At Sunset is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 70% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 45% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AA--- margeA · bargeA · seas · hesperides · away
- 2 AABB- gownA · downA · standsB · handsB · away
- 3 AABB- bendsA · blendsA · makeB · brakeB · away
- 4 AABB- goA · lowA · nightB · lightB · away
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Into the sunset's turquoise marge | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| The moon dips, like a pearly barge | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Enchantment sails through magic seas | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| To faeryland Hesperides, | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Over the hills and away. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Into the fields, in ghost-gray gown, | 8 | ········ |
| The young-eyed Dusk comes slowly down; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Her apron filled with stars she stands, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And one or two slip from her hands | 8 | ········ |
| Over the hills and away. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Above the wood's black caldron bends | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The witch-faced Night and, muttering, blends | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The dew and heat, whose bubbles make | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The mist and musk that haunt the brake | 8 | ········ |
| Over the hills and away. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Oh, come with me, and let us go | 8 | ········ |
| Beyond the sunset lying low; | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Beyond the twilight and the night, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Into Love's kingdom of long light, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Over the hills and away. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
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.