Midnight
Unfathomable Night! how dost thou sweepOver the flooded earth, and darkly hideThe mighty city under thy full tide;Making a silent palace for old Sleep,Like his own temple under the hush'd deep,Where all the busy day he doth abide,And forth at the late dark, outspreadeth wide
His dusky wings, whence the cold waters sweep!How peacefully the living millions lie!Lull'd unto death beneath his poppy spells;There is no breath--no living stir--no cryNo tread of foot--no song--no music-call--Only the sound of melancholy bells--The voice of Time--survivor of them all!
About this text
Midnight is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hood, Midnight, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/midnight.html, id L20050.
Form and metre
Midnight is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABB sweepA · hideB · tideB · sleepA · deepA · abideB · wideB
- 2 -ABACBC sweep · lieA · spellsB · cryA · callC · bellsB · allC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Unfathomable Night! how dost thou sweep | 10 | ˘/˘˘˘····· |
| Over the flooded earth, and darkly hide | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The mighty city under thy full tide; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Making a silent palace for old Sleep, | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Like his own temple under the hush'd deep, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Where all the busy day he doth abide, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And forth at the late dark, outspreadeth wide | 10 | ·········· |
| His dusky wings, whence the cold waters sweep! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| How peacefully the living millions lie! | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘· |
| Lull'd unto death beneath his poppy spells; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| There is no breath--no living stir--no cry | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| No tread of foot--no song--no music-call-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Only the sound of melancholy bells-- | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘· |
| The voice of Time--survivor of them all! | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
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.