Ships That Pass in the Night
Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing;I look far out into the pregnant night,Where I can hear a solemn booming gunAnd catch the gleaming of a random light,That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing.
My tearful eyes my soul's deep hurt are glassing;For I would hail and check that ship of ships.I stretch my hands imploring, cry aloud,My voice falls dead a foot from mine own lips,And but its ghost doth reach that vessel, passing, passing.
O Earth, O Sky, O Ocean, both surpassing,O heart of mine, O soul that dreads the dark!Is there no hope for me? Is there no wayThat I may sight and check that speeding barkWhich out of sight and sound is passing, passing?
Words in this poem
- tearful a.
- Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as, tearful eyes.
- imploring a.
- That implores; beseeching; entreating.
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ships That Pass in the 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, Ships That Pass in the Night, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/ships-that-pass-in-the-night.html, id L00559.
Form and metre
Ships That Pass in the Night is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AB-BA massingA · nightB · gun · lightB · passingA
- 2 AB-BA glassingA · shipsB · aloud · lipsB · passingA
- 3 AB-BA surpassingA · darkB · way · barkB · passingA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| I look far out into the pregnant night, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where I can hear a solemn booming gun | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And catch the gleaming of a random light, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing. | 13 | ·········/˘/˘ |
| My tearful eyes my soul's deep hurt are glassing; | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| For I would hail and check that ship of ships. | 10 | ·········· |
| I stretch my hands imploring, cry aloud, | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| My voice falls dead a foot from mine own lips, | 10 | ·········· |
| And but its ghost doth reach that vessel, passing, passing. | 13 | ·······/˘/˘/˘ |
| O Earth, O Sky, O Ocean, both surpassing, | 10 | ·····/·˘/˘ |
| O heart of mine, O soul that dreads the dark! | 10 | ·········· |
| Is there no hope for me? Is there no way | 10 | ·········· |
| That I may sight and check that speeding bark | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Which out of sight and sound is passing, passing? | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
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.