Night Hymn at Sea: The Words Written for a Melody by Felton
Night sinks on the wave,Hollow gusts are sighing,Sea-birds to their caveThrough the gloom are flying.Oh! should storms come sweeping,Thou, in heaven unsleeping,O’er thy children vigil keeping,Hear, hear, and save!
Stars look o’er the sea,Few, and sad, and shrouded;Faith our light must be,When all else is clouded.Thou, whose voice came thrilling,Wind and billow stilling,Speak once more! our prayer fulfilling--Power dwells with thee!
Words in this poem
- vigil n.
- Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake, watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See Wake, v. i., and cf. Reveille, Surveillance, Vedette, Vegetable]
- thrilling a.
- Causing a thrill; causing tremulous excitement; deeply moving; as, a thrilling romance.
- billow n.
- A great wave or surge of the sea or other water, caused usually by violent wind. [Cf. Icel. bylgja billow, Dan. bölge, Sw. bölja; akin to MHG. bulge billow, bag, and to E. bulge. See Bulge.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Night Hymn at Sea: The Words Written for a Melody by Felton is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, Night Hymn at Sea: The Words Written for a Melody by Felton, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/night-hymn-at-sea-the-words-written-for-a-melody-by-felton.html, id L19739.
Form and metre
Night Hymn at Sea: The Words Written for a Melody by Felton is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCCCA. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABABCCCA waveA · sighingB · caveA · flyingB · sweepingC · unsleepingC · keepingC · saveA
- 2 ABABCCCA seaA · shroudedB · beA · cloudedB · thrillingC · stillingC · fulfillingC · theeA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Night sinks on the wave, | 5 | ····· |
| Hollow gusts are sighing, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Sea-birds to their cave | 5 | ····· |
| Through the gloom are flying. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Oh! should storms come sweeping, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Thou, in heaven unsleeping, | 6 | ··/··· |
| O’er thy children vigil keeping, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Hear, hear, and save! | 4 | ···· |
| Stars look o’er the sea, | 5 | ····· |
| Few, and sad, and shrouded; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Faith our light must be, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| When all else is clouded. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Thou, whose voice came thrilling, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Wind and billow stilling, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Speak once more! our prayer fulfilling-- | 8 | ···/·˘/˘ |
| Power dwells with thee! | 5 | /˘··· |
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.