Evening
The light passesfrom ridge to ridge,from flower to flower--the hypaticas, wide-spreadunder the lightgrow faint--the petals reach inward,the blue tips bendtoward the bluer heartand the flowers are lost.
The cornel-buds are still white,but shadows dartfrom the cornel-roots--black creeps from root to root,each leafcuts another leaf on the grass,shadow seeks shadow,then both leafand leaf-shadow are lost.
About this text
Evening is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sea Garden, Project Gutenberg ebook #28665; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: H.D., Evening, in Sea Garden (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28665, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hd-sea-garden/evening.html, id L08260.
Form and metre
Evening is 19 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ---A--A--- passes · ridge · flower · spreadA · light · faint · inwardA · bend · heart · lost
- 2 ----A--A- white · dart · roots · root · leafA · grass · shadow · leafA · lost
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The light passes | 4 | ··/˘ |
| from ridge to ridge, | 4 | ···· |
| from flower to flower-- | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| the hypaticas, wide-spread | 7 | ······· |
| under the light | 4 | ···· |
| grow faint-- | 2 | ·· |
| the petals reach inward, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| the blue tips bend | 4 | ···· |
| toward the bluer heart | 6 | ···/˘· |
| and the flowers are lost. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| The cornel-buds are still white, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| but shadows dart | 4 | ·/·· |
| from the cornel-roots-- | 5 | ··/˘· |
| black creeps from root to root, | 6 | ······ |
| each leaf | 2 | ·· |
| cuts another leaf on the grass, | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| shadow seeks shadow, | 5 | /··/· |
| then both leaf | 3 | ··· |
| and leaf-shadow are lost. | 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.