Lux in Tenebris
DARK falls the night, withheld the day,Weary we fare perplexed and chill,Led by one little guiding rayShining from centuries far away,—Good-will and Peace: Peace and Good-will.
The torch of glory pales and wanes,The lamp of love must know decease,But still o’er far Judæan plainsThe quenchless star-beam lives and reigns,—Peace and Good-will: Good-will and Peace.
And clear to-day as long agoThe angel-chorus echoes still,Above the clamor and the throeOf human passion, human woe,—Good-will and Peace: Peace and Good-will.
Through eighteen hundred stormy yearsThe dear notes ring, and will not cease;And past all mists of mortal tearsThe guiding star rebukes our fears,—Peace and Good-will: Good-will and Peace.
Shine, blessed star, the night is black,Shine, and the heavens with radiance fill,While on thy slender, guiding trackThe angel voices echo back,—Good-will and Peace: Peace and Good-will.
Words in this poem
- quenchless a.
- Incapable of being quenched; inextinguishable; as, quenchless fire or fury.
- throe n.
- Extreme pain; violent pang; anguish; agony; especially, one of the pangs of travail in childbirth, or purturition. [OE. , , AS. a threatening, oppression, suffering, perhaps influenced by Icel. a throe, a pang, a longing; cf. AS. to suffer.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lux in Tenebris 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, Lux in Tenebris, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/lux-in-tenebris.html, id L23498.
Form and metre
Lux in Tenebris is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABAAB dayA · chillB · rayA · awayA · willB
- 2 ABAAB wanesA · deceaseB · plainsA · reignsA · peaceB
- 3 ABAAB agoA · stillB · throeA · woeA · willB
- 4 ABAAB yearsA · ceaseB · tearsA · fearsA · peaceB
- 5 ABAAB blackA · fillB · trackA · backA · willB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| DARK falls the night, withheld the day, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Weary we fare perplexed and chill, | 8 | /˘··˘/·· |
| Led by one little guiding ray | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Shining from centuries far away,— | 8 | /˘·/˘·˘/ |
| Good-will and Peace: Peace and Good-will. | 8 | ········ |
| The torch of glory pales and wanes, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The lamp of love must know decease, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| But still o’er far Judæan plains | 7 | ······· |
| The quenchless star-beam lives and reigns,— | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Peace and Good-will: Good-will and Peace. | 8 | ········ |
| And clear to-day as long ago | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The angel-chorus echoes still, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Above the clamor and the throe | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of human passion, human woe,— | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Good-will and Peace: Peace and Good-will. | 8 | ········ |
| Through eighteen hundred stormy years | 8 | ·///˘/˘· |
| The dear notes ring, and will not cease; | 8 | ········ |
| And past all mists of mortal tears | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The guiding star rebukes our fears,— | 8 | ·/˘·˘//· |
| Peace and Good-will: Good-will and Peace. | 8 | ········ |
| Shine, blessed star, the night is black, | 8 | ··˘····· |
| Shine, and the heavens with radiance fill, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| While on thy slender, guiding track | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The angel voices echo back,— | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Good-will and Peace: Peace and Good-will. | 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.