Night
Silence, and whirling worlds afarThrough all encircling skies.What floods come o'er the spirit's bar,What wondrous thoughts arise.
The earth, a mantle falls away,And, winged, we leave the sod;Where shines in its eternal swayThe majesty of God.
Words in this poem
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
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, Night, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/night.html, id L00863.
Form and metre
Night is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 afarA · skiesB · barA · ariseB
- 2 ABAB awayA · sodB · swayA · godB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Silence, and whirling worlds afar | 8 | /˘·/˘·˘/ |
| Through all encircling skies. | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| What floods come o'er the spirit's bar, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| What wondrous thoughts arise. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The earth, a mantle falls away, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And, winged, we leave the sod; | 7 | ··˘···· |
| Where shines in its eternal sway | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The majesty of God. | 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.