Trees and the menace of night
TREES and the menace of night;Then a long, lonely, leaden mereBacked by a desolate fell,As by a spectral battlement; and then,Low-brooding, interpenetrating all,A vast, gray, listless, inexpressive sky,So beggared, so incredibly bereftOf starlight and the song of racing worlds,It might have bellied down upon the VoidWhere as in terror Light was beginning to be.
Hist! In the trees fulfilled of night(Night and the wretchedness of the sky)Is it the hurry of the rain?Or the noise of a drive of the Dead,Streaming before the irresistible WillThrough the strange dusk of this, the Debateable LandBetween their place and ours?
Like the forgetfulnessOf the work-a-day world made visible,A mist falls from the melancholy sky.A messenger from some lost and loving soul,Hopeless, far wandered, dazedHere in the provinces of life,A great white moth fades miserably past.
Thro’ the trees in the strange dead night,Under the vast dead sky,Forgetting and forgot, a drift of DeadSets to the mystic mere, the phantom fell,And the unimagined vastitudes beyond.
Words in this poem
- listless a.
- Having no desire or inclination; indifferent; heedless; spiritless. [OE. listles, lustles. See Lust.]
- incredibly adv.
- In an incredible manner.
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- miserably adv.
- In a miserable; unhappily; calamitously; wretchedly; meanly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Trees and the menace of night 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, Trees and the menace of night, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/trees-and-the-menace-of-night.html, id L12458.
Form and metre
Trees and the menace of night is 29 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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 night · mere · fell · then · all · skyA · bereft · worlds · void · beA
- 3 -A-A--- forgetfulness · visibleA · sky · soulA · dazed · life · past
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 |
|---|---|---|
| TREES and the menace of night; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Then a long, lonely, leaden mere | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Backed by a desolate fell, | 8 | ·˘··/˘·· |
| As by a spectral battlement; and then, | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| Low-brooding, interpenetrating all, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A vast, gray, listless, inexpressive sky, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| So beggared, so incredibly bereft | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘/ |
| Of starlight and the song of racing worlds, | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| It might have bellied down upon the Void | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Where as in terror Light was beginning to be. | 12 | ···/˘··˘/˘·· |
| Hist! In the trees fulfilled of night | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| (Night and the wretchedness of the sky) | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Is it the hurry of the rain? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or the noise of a drive of the Dead, | 9 | ········· |
| Streaming before the irresistible Will | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| Through the strange dusk of this, the Debateable Land | 12 | ············ |
| Between their place and ours? | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Like the forgetfulness | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| Of the work-a-day world made visible, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| A mist falls from the melancholy sky. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| A messenger from some lost and loving soul, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Hopeless, far wandered, dazed | 8 | /˘·/˘˘·˘ |
| Here in the provinces of life, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| A great white moth fades miserably past. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thro’ the trees in the strange dead night, | 8 | ········ |
| Under the vast dead sky, | 6 | ······ |
| Forgetting and forgot, a drift of Dead | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/···· |
| Sets to the mystic mere, the phantom fell, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And the unimagined vastitudes beyond. | 11 | ···˘/˘····· |
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