Poems of the Dark Days
"I do not know of anything under the skyThat is friendly or favourable to the Gael,But only the sea that our need brings us to,Or the wind that blows to the harbourThe ship that is bearing us away from Ireland;And there is reason that these are reconciled with us,For we increase the sea with our tears,And the wandering wind with our sighs."
Words in this poem
- gael n.
- A Celt or the Celts of the Scotch Highlands or of Ireland; now esp., a Scotch Highlander of Celtic origin. [See Gaelic.]
- harbour n.
- A station for rest and entertainment; a place of security and comfort; a refuge; a shelter. [OE herbor, herberwe, herberge, Icel. herbergi (cf. OHG. heriberga), orig., a shelter for soldiers; herr army + bjarga to save, help, defend; akin to AS. here ar]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poems of the Dark Days is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poem-Book of the Gael Translations from Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #46917; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Hull, Poems of the Dark Days, in The Poem-Book of the Gael (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #46917, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hull-gael/poems-of-the-dark-days.html, id L11711.
Form and metre
Poems of the Dark Days is 8 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 iambic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| "I do not know of anything under the sky | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| That is friendly or favourable to the Gael, | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| But only the sea that our need brings us to, | 11 | ·/˘···/···· |
| Or the wind that blows to the harbour | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The ship that is bearing us away from Ireland; | 12 | ····/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| And there is reason that these are reconciled with us, | 13 | ···/˘···/˘··· |
| For we increase the sea with our tears, | 9 | ··˘/···/· |
| And the wandering wind with our sighs." | 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.