Nocturn
AT the barren heart of midnight,When the shadow shuts and opensAs the loud flames pulse and flutter,I can hear a cistern leaking.
Dripping, dropping, in a rhythm,Rough, unequal, half-melodious,Like the measures aped from natureIn the infancy of music;
Like the buzzing of an insect,Still, irrational, persistent . . .I must listen, listen, listenIn a passion of attention;
Till it taps upon my heartstrings,And my very life goes dripping,Dropping, dripping, drip-drip-dropping,In the drip-drop of the cistern.
Words in this poem
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Nocturn is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, Nocturn, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/nocturn.html, id L12348.
Form and metre
Nocturn is 16 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 13 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 19% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| AT the barren heart of midnight, | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| When the shadow shuts and opens | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| As the loud flames pulse and flutter, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| I can hear a cistern leaking. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Dripping, dropping, in a rhythm, | 8 | /˘/˘··/˘ |
| Rough, unequal, half-melodious, | 9 | ·˘/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Like the measures aped from nature | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| In the infancy of music; | 8 | ··/˘˘·/˘ |
| Like the buzzing of an insect, | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| Still, irrational, persistent . . . | 8 | ·˘/˘˘˘/˘ |
| I must listen, listen, listen | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| In a passion of attention; | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Till it taps upon my heartstrings, | 8 | ········ |
| And my very life goes dripping, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Dropping, dripping, drip-drip-dropping, | 8 | /˘/˘··/˘ |
| In the drip-drop of the cistern. | 8 | ······/˘ |
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.