A Certain Evening
That night the whole world mingled,The souls were babes at play,And angel danced with devil.And God cried, 'Holiday!'
The sea had climbed the mountain peaks,And shouted to the starsTo come to play: and down they cameSplashing in happy wars.
The pine grew apples for a whim,The cart-horse built a nest;The oxen flew, the flowers sang,The sun rose in the west.
And 'neath the load of many worlds,The lowest life God madeLifted his huge and heavy limbsAnd into heaven strayed.
To where the highest life God madeBefore His presence stands;But God himself cried, 'Holiday!'And she gave me both her hands.
About this text
A Certain Evening is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Wild Knight and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #12037; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: G. K. Chesterton, A Certain Evening, in The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12037, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/chesterton-wild-knight/a-certain-evening.html, id L17132.
Form and metre
A Certain Evening is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 mingled · playA · devil · holidayA
- 3 -A-A whim · nestA · sang · westA
- 4 -A-A worlds · madeA · limbs · strayedA
- 5 -A-A made · standsA · holiday · handsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That night the whole world mingled, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The souls were babes at play, | 6 | ······ |
| And angel danced with devil. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And God cried, 'Holiday!' | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The sea had climbed the mountain peaks, | 9 | ····˘·/˘· |
| And shouted to the stars | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To come to play: and down they came | 8 | ········ |
| Splashing in happy wars. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| The pine grew apples for a whim, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The cart-horse built a nest; | 6 | ······ |
| The oxen flew, the flowers sang, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The sun rose in the west. | 6 | ······ |
| And 'neath the load of many worlds, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The lowest life God made | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Lifted his huge and heavy limbs | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| And into heaven strayed. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To where the highest life God made | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Before His presence stands; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But God himself cried, 'Holiday!' | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| And she gave me both her hands. | 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.