Reverie: Zahir-u-Din
Alone, I wait, till her twilight gateThe Night slips quietly through,With shadow and gloom, and purple bloom,Flung over the Zenith blue.
Her stars that tremble, would fain dissembleLight over lovers thrown,--Her hush and mystery know no historySuch as day may own.Day has record of pleasure and pain,But things that are done by Night remainFor ever and ever unknown.
For a thousand years, 'neath a thousand skies,Night has brought men love;Therefore the old, old longings riseAs the light grows dim above.
Therefore, now that the shadows close,And the mists weird and white,While Time is scented with musk and rose;Magic with silver light.
I long for love; will you grant me some?Day is over at last.Come! as lovers have always come,Through the evenings of the Past.Swiftly, as lovers have always come,Softly, as lovers have always comeThrough the long-forgotten Past.
Words in this poem
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- dissemble v. t.
- To hide under a false semblance or seeming; to feign (something) not to be what it really is; to put an untrue appearance upon; to disguise; to mask. [OF. dissembler to be dissimilar; pref. dis- (L. dis-) + F. sembler to seem, L. simulare to simulate; cf. L. dissimulare to dissemble. See Simulate, and cf. Diss]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Reverie: Zahir-u-Din is in the public domain. This text is taken from India's Love Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #8197; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Laurence Hope, Reverie: Zahir-u-Din, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/reverie-zahir-u-din.html, id L22620.
Form and metre
Reverie: Zahir-u-Din is 26 lines in 5 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABAB, in 2 of the 5 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 -A-A gate · throughA · bloom · blueA
- 2 -A-ABBA dissemble · thrownA · history · ownA · painB · remainB · unknownA
- 3 ABAB skiesA · loveB · riseA · aboveB
- 4 ABAB closeA · whiteB · roseA · lightB
- 5 ABABAAB someA · lastB · comeA · pastB · comeA · comeA · pastB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Alone, I wait, till her twilight gate | 9 | ˘/····/·· |
| The Night slips quietly through, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| With shadow and gloom, and purple bloom, | 9 | ·/····/˘· |
| Flung over the Zenith blue. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Her stars that tremble, would fain dissemble | 10 | ···/˘··˘/˘ |
| Light over lovers thrown,-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Her hush and mystery know no history | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Such as day may own. | 5 | ····· |
| Day has record of pleasure and pain, | 9 | ··˘/·/˘·· |
| But things that are done by Night remain | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| For ever and ever unknown. | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| For a thousand years, 'neath a thousand skies, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Night has brought men love; | 5 | ····· |
| Therefore the old, old longings rise | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As the light grows dim above. | 7 | ······· |
| Therefore, now that the shadows close, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And the mists weird and white, | 6 | ······ |
| While Time is scented with musk and rose; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Magic with silver light. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| I long for love; will you grant me some? | 9 | ········· |
| Day is over at last. | 6 | ······ |
| Come! as lovers have always come, | 8 | ··/˘·/·· |
| Through the evenings of the Past. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Swiftly, as lovers have always come, | 9 | /˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Softly, as lovers have always come | 9 | /˘·/˘·/˘· |
| Through the long-forgotten Past. | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
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.