Vesperal
Strange grows the river on the sunless evenings!The river comforts me, grown spectral, vague and dumb:Long was the day; at last the consoling shadows come:Sufficient for the day are the day's evil things!
Labour and longing and despair the long day brings;Patient till evening men watch the sun go west;Deferred, expected night at last brings sleep and rest:Sufficient for the day are the day's evil things!
At last the tranquil Angelus of evening ringsNight's curtain down for comfort and oblivionOf all the vanities observèd by the sun:Sufficient for the day are the day's evil things!
So, some time, when the last of all our eveningsCrowneth memorially the last of all our days,Not loth to take his poppies man goes down and says,"Sufficient for the day were the day's evil things!"
Words in this poem
- sunless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed.
- consoling a.
- Adapted to console or comfort; cheering; as, this is consoling news.
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Vesperal 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, Vesperal, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/vesperal.html, id L01645.
Form and metre
Vesperal is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is alexandrines, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.4 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in alexandrines.
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 ABBA eveningsA · dumbB · comeB · thingsA
- 2 ABBA bringsA · westB · restB · thingsA
- 3 ABBA ringsA · oblivionB · sunB · thingsA
- 4 ABBA eveningsA · daysB · saysB · thingsA
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 alexandrines. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Strange grows the river on the sunless evenings! | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| The river comforts me, grown spectral, vague and dumb: | 12 | ·/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Long was the day; at last the consoling shadows come: | 13 | ·······˘/˘/·· |
| Sufficient for the day are the day's evil things! | 11 | ˘/˘······/· |
| Labour and longing and despair the long day brings; | 12 | /··/˘·˘/···· |
| Patient till evening men watch the sun go west; | 11 | /˘·/˘······ |
| Deferred, expected night at last brings sleep and rest: | 12 | ˘/˘/˘······· |
| Sufficient for the day are the day's evil things! | 11 | ˘/˘······/· |
| At last the tranquil Angelus of evening rings | 12 | ···/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Night's curtain down for comfort and oblivion | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Of all the vanities observèd by the sun: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Sufficient for the day are the day's evil things! | 11 | ˘/˘······/· |
| So, some time, when the last of all our evenings | 11 | ········//˘ |
| Crowneth memorially the last of all our days, | 12 | /˘········/· |
| Not loth to take his poppies man goes down and says, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| "Sufficient for the day were the day's evil things!" | 11 | ˘/˘······/· |
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.