Villanelle of Sunset
Come hither, Child! and rest:This is the end of day,Behold the weary West!
Sleep rounds with equal zestMan's toil and children's play:Come hither, Child! and rest.
My white bird, seek thy nest,Thy drooping head down lay:Behold the weary West!
Now are the flowers confestOf slumber: sleep, as they!Come hither, Child! and rest.
Now eve is manifest,And homeward lies our way:Behold the weary West!
Tired flower! upon my breast,I would wear thee alway:Come hither, Child! and rest;Behold, the weary West!
Words in this poem
- zest n.
- A piece of orange or lemon peel, or the aromatic oil which may be squeezed from such peel, used to give flavor to liquor, etc. [F. zeste, probably fr. L. schistos split, cleft, divided, Gr. Schism.]
- homeward a.
- Being in the direction of home; as, the homeward way.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Villanelle of Sunset 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, Villanelle of Sunset, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/villanelle-of-sunset.html, id L01619.
Form and metre
Villanelle of Sunset is 19 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABA, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABA restA · dayB · westA
- 2 ABA zestA · playB · restA
- 3 ABA nestA · layB · westA
- 4 ABA confestA · theyB · restA
- 5 ABA manifestA · wayB · westA
- 6 A-AA breastA · alway · restA · westA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Come hither, Child! and rest: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| This is the end of day, | 6 | ······ |
| Behold the weary West! | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Sleep rounds with equal zest | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Man's toil and children's play: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Come hither, Child! and rest. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| My white bird, seek thy nest, | 6 | ······ |
| Thy drooping head down lay: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Behold the weary West! | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Now are the flowers confest | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Of slumber: sleep, as they! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Come hither, Child! and rest. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Now eve is manifest, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And homeward lies our way: | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Behold the weary West! | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Tired flower! upon my breast, | 9 | /˘˘/˘···· |
| I would wear thee alway: | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Come hither, Child! and rest; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Behold, the weary West! | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
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.