Sunset Dreams
The moth and beetle wing aboutThe garden ways of other days;Above the hills, a fiery shoutOf gold, the day dies slowly out,Like some wild blast a huntsman blows:And o'er the hills my Fancy goes,Following the sunset's golden callUnto a vine-hung garden wall,Where she awaits me in the gloom,Between the lily and the rose,With arms and lips of warm perfume,The dream of Love my Fancy knows.
The glowworm and the firefly glowAmong the ways of bygone days;A golden shaft shot from a bowOf silver, star and moon swing lowAbove the hills where twilight lies:And o'er the hills my Longing flies,Following the star's far-arrowed gold,Unto a gate where, as of old,She waits amid the rose and rue,With star-bright hair and night-dark eyes,The dream, to whom my heart is true,My dream of Love that never dies.
Words in this poem
- huntsman n.
- One who hunts, or who practices hunting.
- glowworm n.
- A coleopterous insect of the genus Lampyris; esp., the wingless females and larvæ of the two European species (L. noctiluca, and L.
- firefly n.
- Any luminous winged insect, esp. luminous beetles of the family Lampyridæ.
- bygone n.
- Something gone by or past; a past event.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sunset Dreams 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, Sunset Dreams, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/sunset-dreams.html, id L10872.
Form and metre
Sunset Dreams is 24 lines in 2 stanzas of 12 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 25% 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 A-AABBCCDBDB aboutA · days · shoutA · outA · blowsB · goesB · callC · wallC · gloomD · roseB · perfumeD · knowsB
- 2 A-AABBCCDBDB glowA · days · bowA · lowA · liesB · fliesB · goldC · oldC · rueD · eyesB · trueD · diesB
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 moth and beetle wing about | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The garden ways of other days; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Above the hills, a fiery shout | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of gold, the day dies slowly out, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Like some wild blast a huntsman blows: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And o'er the hills my Fancy goes, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Following the sunset's golden call | 8 | /˘·/·/˘· |
| Unto a vine-hung garden wall, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where she awaits me in the gloom, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Between the lily and the rose, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With arms and lips of warm perfume, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The dream of Love my Fancy knows. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The glowworm and the firefly glow | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| Among the ways of bygone days; | 8 | ·····/·· |
| A golden shaft shot from a bow | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of silver, star and moon swing low | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Above the hills where twilight lies: | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And o'er the hills my Longing flies, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Following the star's far-arrowed gold, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Unto a gate where, as of old, | 8 | ········ |
| She waits amid the rose and rue, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| With star-bright hair and night-dark eyes, | 8 | ········ |
| The dream, to whom my heart is true, | 8 | ········ |
| My dream of Love that never dies. | 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.