One Evening Near Nice
PALE depth of sky, serene and wonderful,Within whose fold the lamps of early starsShine far away and faintly luminous;Whose pensive tones merge from the afterglowInto this colour indescribable;This blending of the sea and earth and clouds,Soft and yet poignant, passionate yet calm.I know not what the spirit in me feels,When it beholds thee through my human eyes:Nor what strange craving for forgotten thingsHas stirred my soul to this disquietude!
Words in this poem
- merge v. t.
- To cause to be swallowed up; to immerse; to sink; to absorb. [L. mergere, mersum. Cf. Emerge, Immerse, Marrow.]
- indescribable a.
- Incapable of being described.
- blending n.
- The act of mingling.
- poignant a.
- Pricking; piercing; sharp; pungent. [F., p. pr. of poindre to sting, fr. L. pungere to prick, sting. See Pungent.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
One Evening Near Nice is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #50591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Radclyffe Hall, One Evening Near Nice, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/one-evening-near-nice.html, id L22691.
Form and metre
One Evening Near Nice is 11 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| PALE depth of sky, serene and wonderful, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| Within whose fold the lamps of early stars | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Shine far away and faintly luminous; | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘˘ |
| Whose pensive tones merge from the afterglow | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Into this colour indescribable; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| This blending of the sea and earth and clouds, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Soft and yet poignant, passionate yet calm. | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| I know not what the spirit in me feels, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When it beholds thee through my human eyes: | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Nor what strange craving for forgotten things | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Has stirred my soul to this disquietude! | 10 | ··˘······· |
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.