The Night of Death
Wrecked their homes and swept them downward,Suddenly to yawning graves.
'Mid the wastes of ruined households,And the tempest's wild alarms,Stood a terror-stricken motherWith a child within her arms.
Other children huddled 'round her,Each one nestling in her heart;Swift in thought and swift in action,She at least from one must part.
Then she said unto her daughter,"Strive to save one child from death.""Which one?" said the anxious daughter,As she stood with bated breath.
Oh! the anguish of that mother;What despair was in her eye!All her little ones were precious;Which one should she leave to die?
Then outspake the brother Bennie:"I will take the little one.""No," exclaimed the anxious mother;"No, my child, it can't be done."
Words in this poem
- stricken p. p.
- Struck; smitten; wounded; as, the stricken deer.
- nestling n.
- A young bird which has not abandoned the nest. Piers Plowman.
- bated a.
- Reduced; lowered; restrained; as, to speak with bated breath.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Night of Death is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #679; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, The Night of Death, in Poems (1854–1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #679, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/harper-poems/the-night-of-death-2.html, id L10593.
Form and metre
The Night of Death is 22 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in trochaic 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.
- 2 -A-A households · alarmsA · mother · armsA
- 3 -A-A her · heartA · action · partA
- 4 ABAB daughterA · deathB · daughterA · breathB
- 5 -A-A mother · eyeA · precious · dieA
- 6 -A-A bennie · oneA · mother · doneA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Wrecked their homes and swept them downward, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Suddenly to yawning graves. | 7 | /˘˘·/˘· |
| 'Mid the wastes of ruined households, | 8 | ····/˘/· |
| And the tempest's wild alarms, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Stood a terror-stricken mother | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| With a child within her arms. | 7 | ······· |
| Other children huddled 'round her, | 8 | /˘/˘/˘·· |
| Each one nestling in her heart; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Swift in thought and swift in action, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| She at least from one must part. | 7 | ······· |
| Then she said unto her daughter, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| "Strive to save one child from death." | 7 | ······· |
| "Which one?" said the anxious daughter, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| As she stood with bated breath. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Oh! the anguish of that mother; | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| What despair was in her eye! | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| All her little ones were precious; | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Which one should she leave to die? | 7 | ······· |
| Then outspake the brother Bennie: | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| "I will take the little one." | 7 | ····/˘· |
| "No," exclaimed the anxious mother; | 8 | ·˘/·/˘/˘ |
| "No, my child, it can't be done." | 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.