A Summer Night
Summah is de lovin' time--Do' keer what you say.Night is allus peart an' prime,Bettah dan de day.Do de day is sweet an' good,Birds a-singin' fine,Pines a-smellin' in de wood,--But de night is mine.
Rivah whisperin' "howdy do,"Ez it pass you by--Moon a-lookin' down at you,Winkin' on de sly.Frogs a-croakin' f'om de pon',Singin' bass dey fill,An' you listen way beyon'Ol' man whippo'will.
Hush up, honey, tek my han'Mek yo' footsteps light;Somep'n' kin' o' hol's de lan'On a summah night.Somep'n' dat you nevah seesAn' you nevah hyeahs,But you feels it in de breeze,Somep'n' nigh to teahs.
Somep'n' nigh to teahs? dat's so;But hit's nigh to smiles.An' you feels it ez you goDown de shinin' miles.Tek my han', my little dove;Hush an' come erway--Summah is de time fu' love,Night-time beats de day!
Words in this poem
- peart a.
- Active; lively; brisk; smart; -- often applied to convalescents; as, she is quite peart to-day. [O. Eng. & Colloq. U. [A variant of pert, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Summer Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, A Summer Night, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/a-summer-night.html, id L00861.
Form and metre
A Summer Night is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABABCDCD timeA · sayB · primeA · dayB · goodC · fineD · woodC · mineD
- 2 ABAB-C-C doA · byB · youA · slyB · pon · fillC · beyon · whippo'willC
- 3 ABABCDCD hanA · lightB · lanA · nightB · seesC · hyeahsD · breezeC · teahsD
- 4 ABABC-C- soA · smilesB · goA · milesB · doveC · erway · loveC · day
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Summah is de lovin' time-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Do' keer what you say. | 5 | ····· |
| Night is allus peart an' prime, | 7 | ······· |
| Bettah dan de day. | 5 | ····· |
| Do de day is sweet an' good, | 7 | ······· |
| Birds a-singin' fine, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Pines a-smellin' in de wood,-- | 7 | ······· |
| But de night is mine. | 5 | ····· |
| Rivah whisperin' "howdy do," | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Ez it pass you by-- | 5 | ····· |
| Moon a-lookin' down at you, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Winkin' on de sly. | 5 | ····· |
| Frogs a-croakin' f'om de pon', | 7 | ······· |
| Singin' bass dey fill, | 5 | /˘··· |
| An' you listen way beyon' | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Ol' man whippo'will. | 5 | ····· |
| Hush up, honey, tek my han' | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Mek yo' footsteps light; | 5 | ··/·· |
| Somep'n' kin' o' hol's de lan' | 7 | ······· |
| On a summah night. | 5 | ····· |
| Somep'n' dat you nevah sees | 7 | ······· |
| An' you nevah hyeahs, | 5 | ····· |
| But you feels it in de breeze, | 7 | ······· |
| Somep'n' nigh to teahs. | 5 | ····· |
| Somep'n' nigh to teahs? dat's so; | 7 | ······· |
| But hit's nigh to smiles. | 5 | ····· |
| An' you feels it ez you go | 7 | ······· |
| Down de shinin' miles. | 5 | ····· |
| Tek my han', my little dove; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Hush an' come erway-- | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Summah is de time fu' love, | 7 | ······· |
| Night-time beats de day! | 5 | ····· |
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