Sunrise in the Tropics
Here I wait with the trembling starsTo see thee once more take thy throne.
There the patient palm tree watchingWaits to say, "Good morn" to thee,And a throb of expectationPulses through the earth and me.
Now, o'er nature falls a hush,Look! the East is all a-blush;And a growing crimson crestDims the late stars in the west;Now, a flood of golden lightSweeps across the silver night,Swift the pale moon fades awayBefore the light-girt King of Day,See! the miracle is done!Once more behold! The Sun!
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- throb v. i.
- To beat, or pulsate, with more than usual force or rapidity; to beat in consequence of agitation; to palpitate; -- said of the heart, pulse, etc. [OE. ; of uncertain origin; cf. Russ. trepete a trembling, and E. trepidation.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sunrise in the Tropics is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, Sunrise in the Tropics, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/sunrise-in-the-tropics.html, id L08307.
Form and metre
Sunrise in the Tropics is 16 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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.
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.
- 2 -A-A watching · theeA · expectation · meA
- 3 AABBCCDDEE hushA · blushA · crestB · westB · lightC · nightC · awayD · dayD · doneE · sunE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here I wait with the trembling stars | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To see thee once more take thy throne. | 8 | ········ |
| There the patient palm tree watching | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Waits to say, "Good morn" to thee, | 7 | ······· |
| And a throb of expectation | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Pulses through the earth and me. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Now, o'er nature falls a hush, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Look! the East is all a-blush; | 7 | ······· |
| And a growing crimson crest | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Dims the late stars in the west; | 7 | ······· |
| Now, a flood of golden light | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Sweeps across the silver night, | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Swift the pale moon fades away | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Before the light-girt King of Day, | 8 | ········ |
| See! the miracle is done! | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Once more behold! The Sun! | 6 | ··˘/·· |
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.