Noon and Night Flower
Not any flower that blowsBut shining watch doth keep;Every swift changing chequered hour it knowsNow to break forth in beauty; now to sleep.
This for the roving beeKeeps open house, and thisStainless and clear is, that in darkness sheMay lure the moth to where her nectar is.
Lovely beyond the restAre these of all delight:--The tiny pimpernel that noon loves best,The primrose palely burning through the night.
One 'neath day's burning skyWith ruby decks her place,The other when Eve's chariot glideth byLifts her dim torch to light that dreaming face.
Words in this poem
- stainless a.
- Free from stain; immaculate.
- palely adv.
- In a pale manner; dimly; wanly; not freshly or ruddily. [From Pale, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Noon and Night Flower is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Listeners and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22569; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, Noon and Night Flower, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/noon-and-night-flower.html, id L17079.
Form and metre
Noon and Night Flower is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABAB blowsA · keepB · knowsA · sleepB
- 2 A-A- beeA · this · sheA · is
- 3 ABAB restA · delightB · bestA · nightB
- 4 ABAB skyA · placeB · byA · faceB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Not any flower that blows | 6 | ·/˘/·· |
| But shining watch doth keep; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Every swift changing chequered hour it knows | 10 | /˘·/˘··/·· |
| Now to break forth in beauty; now to sleep. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| This for the roving bee | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Keeps open house, and this | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Stainless and clear is, that in darkness she | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| May lure the moth to where her nectar is. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Lovely beyond the rest | 6 | /˘···· |
| Are these of all delight:-- | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The tiny pimpernel that noon loves best, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| The primrose palely burning through the night. | 10 | ·/·/˘/˘··· |
| One 'neath day's burning sky | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With ruby decks her place, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The other when Eve's chariot glideth by | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Lifts her dim torch to light that dreaming face. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
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.