January Dusk
Austere and clad in sombre robes of grey,With hands upfolded and with silent wings,In unimpassioned mystery the dayPasses; a lonely thrush its requiem sings.
The dust of night is tangled in the boughsOf leafless lime and lilac, and the pineGrows blacker, and the star upon the browsOf sleep is set in heaven for a sign.
Earth’s little weary peoples fall on peaceAnd dream of breaking buds and blossoming,Of primrose airs, of days of large increase,And all the coloured retinue of spring.
Words in this poem
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- requiem n.
- A mass said or sung for the repose of a departed soul. [Acc. of L. requies rest, the first words of the Mass being "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine," give eternal rest to them, O lord; pref. re- re + quies quiet. S]
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
January Dusk is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, January Dusk, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/january-dusk.html, id L23088.
Form and metre
January Dusk is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 greyA · wingsB · dayA · singsB
- 2 ABAB boughsA · pineB · browsA · signB
- 3 ABAB peaceA · blossomingB · increaseA · springB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Austere and clad in sombre robes of grey, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| With hands upfolded and with silent wings, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In unimpassioned mystery the day | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Passes; a lonely thrush its requiem sings. | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| The dust of night is tangled in the boughs | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of leafless lime and lilac, and the pine | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| Grows blacker, and the star upon the brows | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Of sleep is set in heaven for a sign. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Earth’s little weary peoples fall on peace | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| And dream of breaking buds and blossoming, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Of primrose airs, of days of large increase, | 10 | ·/······˘/ |
| And all the coloured retinue of spring. | 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.