Some Time
THE night will round into the morn,The angry storm-wind cease to beat,The spent bird preen his wet tired wing,Grief ceaseth when the babe is born.There comes an end to hardest thingSome time,—Some time, some far time, late but sweet.
I could not keep on with the fight;I could not face my want, my sin,The baffled hope, the urgent foe,The mighty wrong, the struggling right,Excepting that I surely knowSome time—Some time, some dear time,—I shall win.
I could not hold so sure, so fast,The truth which is to me so true,The truth which men deride and shun,Were I not sure it shall at lastBe held as truth by every oneSome time,—Some time all men shall own it too.
Some time the morning bells shall chime,Some time be heard the victor-song,Some time the hard goal be attained,The puzzles shall be clear some time,The tears all shed, the gains all gained,Some time—Ah, dear time, tarry not too long!
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- preen n.
- A forked tool used by clothiers in dressing cloth. [AS. preón a clasp, bodkin; akin to D. priem punch, bodkin, awl, G. pfriem, Icel. prjonn a knitting needle, pin, Dan. preen a bodkin, punch.]
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- deride v. t.
- To laugh at with contempt; to laugh to scorn; to turn to ridicule or make sport of; to mock; to scoff at. [L. deridere, derisum; de- + rid to laugh. See Ridicule.]
- chime n.
- The harmonious sound of bells, or of musical instruments. [OE. chimbe, prop., cymbal, OF. cymbe, cymble, in a dialectic form, chymble, F. cymbale, L. cymbalum, fr. Gr. Cymbal.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Some Time 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, Some Time, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/some-time.html, id L23468.
Form and metre
Some Time is 28 lines in 4 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ABCAC-B mornA · beatB · wingC · bornA · thingC · time · sweetB
- 2 ABCAC-B fightA · sinB · foeC · rightA · knowC · time · winB
- 3 ABCAC-B fastA · trueB · shunC · lastA · oneC · time · tooB
- 4 ABCACAB chimeA · songB · attainedC · timeA · gainedC · timeA · longB
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 night will round into the morn, | 8 | ········ |
| The angry storm-wind cease to beat, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The spent bird preen his wet tired wing, | 8 | ······/· |
| Grief ceaseth when the babe is born. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| There comes an end to hardest thing | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some time,— | 2 | ·· |
| Some time, some far time, late but sweet. | 8 | ········ |
| I could not keep on with the fight; | 8 | ········ |
| I could not face my want, my sin, | 8 | ········ |
| The baffled hope, the urgent foe, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The mighty wrong, the struggling right, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Excepting that I surely know | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Some time— | 2 | ·· |
| Some time, some dear time,—I shall win. | 8 | ········ |
| I could not hold so sure, so fast, | 8 | ········ |
| The truth which is to me so true, | 8 | ········ |
| The truth which men deride and shun, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Were I not sure it shall at last | 8 | ········ |
| Be held as truth by every one | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some time,— | 2 | ·· |
| Some time all men shall own it too. | 8 | ········ |
| Some time the morning bells shall chime, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Some time be heard the victor-song, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some time the hard goal be attained, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The puzzles shall be clear some time, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The tears all shed, the gains all gained, | 8 | ········ |
| Some time— | 2 | ·· |
| Ah, dear time, tarry not too long! | 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.