“Arise, Shine, for Thy Light Has Come”
LONG time in sloth, long time in sin,Contented with thy dark estateHast thou abode, O soul of mine;Now dawns the morning, fair though late,Her sunny tides are sweeping in.Thy light has come; arise and shine!
The sheathèd bud which all night longHas folded close its purple upUpon the morning-glory vine;At the first rose-flush, the first song,Unrolls its petals, rears its cup,And, light being come, makes haste to shine.
It cannot clasp the whole bright day,Nor the wide-brimming sea of dewWithin its curve exact and fine.Of countless beams a single ray,One little freshening sip or two,It takes, and so is glad to shine.
Make ready likewise, O my soul!God’s blessed day has dawned; partake!Anoint thy head with oil and wine;From the great sum, the mighty whole,Thy little crumb and portion break,And, giving thanks, arise and shine!
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- brimming a.
- Full to the brim; overflowing.
- countless a.
- Incapable of being counted; not ascertainable; innumerable.
- crumb n.
- A small fragment or piece; especially, a small piece of bread or other food, broken or cut off. [AS. cruma, akin to D. kruim, G. krume; cf. G. krauen to scratch, claw.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
“Arise, Shine, for Thy Light Has Come” is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Few More Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #49518; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Susan Coolidge, “Arise, Shine, for Thy Light Has Come”, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/arise-shine-for-thy-light-has-come.html, id L23452.
Form and metre
“Arise, Shine, for Thy Light Has Come” is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABCABC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See 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 ABCBAC sinA · estateB · mineC · lateB · inA · shineC
- 2 ABCABC longA · upB · vineC · songA · cupB · shineC
- 3 ABCABC dayA · dewB · fineC · rayA · twoB · shineC
- 4 ABCABC soulA · partakeB · wineC · wholeA · breakB · shineC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| LONG time in sloth, long time in sin, | 8 | ········ |
| Contented with thy dark estate | 8 | ˘/˘···˘/ |
| Hast thou abode, O soul of mine; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Now dawns the morning, fair though late, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Her sunny tides are sweeping in. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Thy light has come; arise and shine! | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| The sheathèd bud which all night long | 7 | ······· |
| Has folded close its purple up | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Upon the morning-glory vine; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| At the first rose-flush, the first song, | 8 | ········ |
| Unrolls its petals, rears its cup, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And, light being come, makes haste to shine. | 8 | ··/····· |
| It cannot clasp the whole bright day, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Nor the wide-brimming sea of dew | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Within its curve exact and fine. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Of countless beams a single ray, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| One little freshening sip or two, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| It takes, and so is glad to shine. | 8 | ········ |
| Make ready likewise, O my soul! | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| God’s blessed day has dawned; partake! | 8 | ··˘···˘/ |
| Anoint thy head with oil and wine; | 8 | ˘/······ |
| From the great sum, the mighty whole, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy little crumb and portion break, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And, giving thanks, arise and shine! | 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.