Out of the Morning
Will there really be a morning?Is there such a thing as day?Could I see it from the mountainsIf I were as tall as they?
Has it feet like water-lilies?Has it feathers like a bird?Is it brought from famous countriesOf which I have never heard?
Oh, some scholar! Oh, some sailor!Oh, some wise man from the skies!Please to tell a little pilgrimWhere the place called morning lies!
About this text
Out of the Morning is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, Out of the Morning, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/out-of-the-morning.html, id L03674.
Form and metre
Out of the Morning is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 6 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 trochaic 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 -A-A morning · dayA · mountains · theyA
- 2 -A-A lilies · birdA · countries · heardA
- 3 -A-A sailor · skiesA · pilgrim · liesA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Will there really be a morning? | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Is there such a thing as day? | 7 | ······· |
| Could I see it from the mountains | 8 | ······/˘ |
| If I were as tall as they? | 7 | ······· |
| Has it feet like water-lilies? | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Has it feathers like a bird? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Is it brought from famous countries | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Of which I have never heard? | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Oh, some scholar! Oh, some sailor! | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Oh, some wise man from the skies! | 7 | ······· |
| Please to tell a little pilgrim | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Where the place called morning lies! | 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.