At Sunset Time
Adown the west a golden glowSinks burning in the sea,And all the dreams of long agoCome flooding back to me.The past has writ a story strangeUpon my aching heart,But time has wrought a subtle change,My wounds have ceased to smart.
No more the quick delight of youth,No more the sudden pain,I look no more for trust or truthWhere greed may compass gain.What, was it I who bared my heartThrough unrelenting years,And knew the sting of misery's dart,The tang of sorrow's tears?
'Tis better now, I do not weep,I do not laugh nor care;My soul and spirit half asleepDrift aimless everywhere.We float upon a sluggish stream,We ride no rapids mad,While life is all a tempered dreamAnd every joy half sad.
Words in this poem
- adown adv.
- From a higher to a lower situation; downward; down, to or on the ground. [OE. adun, adoun, adune. AS. of dune off the hill. See Down.]
- flooding n.
- The filling or covering with water or other fluid; overflow; inundation; the filling anything to excess.
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- greed n.
- An eager desire or longing; greediness; as, a greed of gain. [Akin to Goth. grdus hunger, Icel. graedhr. sq. root34. See Greedy.]
- unrelenting a.
- Not relenting; unyielding; rigid; hard; stern; cruel.
- aimless a.
- Without aim or purpose; as, an aimless life.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At Sunset Time 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, At Sunset Time, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/at-sunset-time.html, id L00862.
Form and metre
At Sunset Time is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 glowA · seaB · agoA · meB · strangeC · heartD · changeC · smartD
- 2 ABABCDCD youthA · painB · truthA · gainB · heartC · yearsD · dartC · tearsD
- 3 ABABCDCD weepA · careB · asleepA · everywhereB · streamC · madD · dreamC · sadD
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Adown the west a golden glow | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Sinks burning in the sea, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And all the dreams of long ago | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Come flooding back to me. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The past has writ a story strange | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Upon my aching heart, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But time has wrought a subtle change, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My wounds have ceased to smart. | 6 | ······ |
| No more the quick delight of youth, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| No more the sudden pain, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I look no more for trust or truth | 8 | ········ |
| Where greed may compass gain. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| What, was it I who bared my heart | 8 | ········ |
| Through unrelenting years, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| And knew the sting of misery's dart, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The tang of sorrow's tears? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| 'Tis better now, I do not weep, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I do not laugh nor care; | 6 | ······ |
| My soul and spirit half asleep | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Drift aimless everywhere. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| We float upon a sluggish stream, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| We ride no rapids mad, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| While life is all a tempered dream | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And every joy half sad. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
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.