Days and nights into years weave
Days and nights into years weaveA net to blind and to deceiveMe, yet my full heart yearnsAs the world about me turnsFor things I know, yet cannot know,'Twixt sky above and earth below.All day I watch the sunlight spillInward, driving out the chillThat night has laid here fold on foldBetween these walls, till they would holdNo more. With half closed eyes I seePeace and quiet liquidlySteeping the walls and cloaking themWith warmth and silence soaking them;They do not know, nor care to know,Why evening waters sigh in flow;Why about the pole star turnStars that flare and freeze and burn;Nor why the seasons, springward wheeling,Set the bells of living pealing.They sorrow not that they are dumb:For they would not a god become.
. . . I am sun-steeped, until IAm all sun, and liquidlyI leave my pedestal and flowQuietly along each row,Breathing in their fragrant breathAnd that of the earth beneath.Time may now unheeded pass:I am the life that warms the grass—
Or does the earth warm me? I knowNot, nor do I care to know.I am with the flowers one,Now that is my bondage done;And in the earth I shall sleepTo never wake, to never weepFor things I know, yet cannot know,'Twixt sky above and earth below,For Pan's understanding eyesQuietly bless me from the skies,Giving me, who knew his sorrow,The gift of sleep to be my morrow.
Words in this poem
- spill n.
- A bit of wood split off; a splinter. [sq. root170. Cf. Spell a splinter.]
- liquidly adv.
- In a liquid manner; flowingly.
- cloaking n.
- The act of covering with a cloak; the act of concealing anything.
- flare v. i.
- To burn with an unsteady or waving flame; as, the candle flares. [Cf. Norw. flara to blaze, flame, adorn with tinsel, dial. Sw. flasa upp, and E. flash, or flacker.]
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Days and nights into years weave is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Marble Faun, Wikisource; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Faulkner, Days and nights into years weave, in The Marble Faun (1924), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/faulkner-marble-faun/section-17.html, id L28629.
Form and metre
Days and nights into years weave is 42 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 90% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK weaveA · deceiveA · yearnsB · turnsB · knowC · belowC · spillD · chillD · foldE · holdE · seeF · liquidlyF · themG · themG · knowH · flowH · turnI · burnI · wheelingJ · pealingJ · dumbK · becomeK
- 2 --AA--BB i · liquidly · flowA · rowA · breath · beneath · passB · grassB
- 3 AABBCCAADDEE knowA · knowA · oneB · doneB · sleepC · weepC · knowA · belowA · eyesD · skiesD · sorrowE · morrowE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Days and nights into years weave | 7 | ······· |
| A net to blind and to deceive | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Me, yet my full heart yearns | 6 | ······ |
| As the world about me turns | 7 | ······· |
| For things I know, yet cannot know, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| 'Twixt sky above and earth below. | 8 | ········ |
| All day I watch the sunlight spill | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Inward, driving out the chill | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| That night has laid here fold on fold | 8 | ········ |
| Between these walls, till they would hold | 8 | ········ |
| No more. With half closed eyes I see | 8 | ········ |
| Peace and quiet liquidly | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Steeping the walls and cloaking them | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| With warmth and silence soaking them; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| They do not know, nor care to know, | 8 | ········ |
| Why evening waters sigh in flow; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Why about the pole star turn | 7 | ······· |
| Stars that flare and freeze and burn; | 7 | ······· |
| Nor why the seasons, springward wheeling, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Set the bells of living pealing. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| They sorrow not that they are dumb: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For they would not a god become. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| . . . I am sun-steeped, until I | 8 | ····˘··· |
| Am all sun, and liquidly | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| I leave my pedestal and flow | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Quietly along each row, | 7 | /˘˘˘/·· |
| Breathing in their fragrant breath | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| And that of the earth beneath. | 7 | ······· |
| Time may now unheeded pass: | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| I am the life that warms the grass— | 8 | ········ |
| Or does the earth warm me? I know | 8 | ········ |
| Not, nor do I care to know. | 7 | ······· |
| I am with the flowers one, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Now that is my bondage done; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And in the earth I shall sleep | 7 | ······· |
| To never wake, to never weep | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| For things I know, yet cannot know, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| 'Twixt sky above and earth below, | 8 | ········ |
| For Pan's understanding eyes | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Quietly bless me from the skies, | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| Giving me, who knew his sorrow, | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| The gift of sleep to be my morrow. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
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.