Gray Nights
A while we wandered (thus it is I dream!)Through a long, sandy track of No Man's Land,Where only poppies grew among the sand,The which we, plucking, cast with scant esteem,And ever sadlier, into the sad stream,Which followed us, as we went, hand in hand,Under the estranged stars, a road unplanned,Seeing all things in the shadow of a dream.
And ever sadlier, as the stars expired,We found the poppies rarer, till thine eyesGrown all my light, to light me were too tired,And at their darkening, that no surmiseMight haunt me of the lost days we desired,After them all I flung those memories!
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gray Nights is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur Symons, Project Gutenberg ebook #8497; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Dowson, Gray Nights, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/gray-nights.html, id L01644.
Form and metre
Gray Nights is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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 ABBAABBA dreamA · landB · sandB · esteemA · streamA · handB · unplannedB · dreamA
- 2 -ABABA expired · eyesA · tiredB · surmiseA · desiredB · memoriesA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A while we wandered (thus it is I dream!) | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Through a long, sandy track of No Man's Land, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Where only poppies grew among the sand, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The which we, plucking, cast with scant esteem, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And ever sadlier, into the sad stream, | 10 | ·//˘˘····· |
| Which followed us, as we went, hand in hand, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Under the estranged stars, a road unplanned, | 10 | ···˘/···˘/ |
| Seeing all things in the shadow of a dream. | 10 | /····/···· |
| And ever sadlier, as the stars expired, | 10 | ·//˘˘···˘/ |
| We found the poppies rarer, till thine eyes | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Grown all my light, to light me were too tired, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And at their darkening, that no surmise | 10 | ···/˘˘··˘/ |
| Might haunt me of the lost days we desired, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| After them all I flung those memories! | 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.