Sunset in the Tropics
A silver flash from the sinking sun,Then a shot of crimson across the skyThat, bursting, lets a thousand colors flyAnd riot among the clouds; they run,Deepening in purple, flaming in gold,Changing, and opening fold after fold,Then fading through all of the tints of the rose into gray,Till, taking quick fright at the coming night,They rush out down the west,In hurried questOf the fleeing day.
Now above where the tardiest color flares a moment yet,One point of light, now two, now three are setTo form the starry stairs,--And, in her fire-fly crown,Queen Night, on velvet slippered feet, comes softly down.
Words in this poem
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- slippered a.
- Wearing slippers.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sunset 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, Sunset in the Tropics, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/sunset-in-the-tropics.html, id L08312.
Form and metre
Sunset in the Tropics is 16 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBACCD-EED sunA · skyB · flyB · runA · goldC · foldC · grayD · night · westE · questE · dayD
- 2 AA-BB yetA · setA · stairs · crownB · downB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A silver flash from the sinking sun, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Then a shot of crimson across the sky | 10 | ····/˘˘/·· |
| That, bursting, lets a thousand colors fly | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And riot among the clouds; they run, | 8 | ·/······ |
| Deepening in purple, flaming in gold, | 9 | /˘·/˘/˘·· |
| Changing, and opening fold after fold, | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| Then fading through all of the tints of the rose into gray, | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| Till, taking quick fright at the coming night, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| They rush out down the west, | 6 | ······ |
| In hurried quest | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Of the fleeing day. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Now above where the tardiest color flares a moment yet, | 14 | ·······/˘··/˘· |
| One point of light, now two, now three are set | 10 | ·········· |
| To form the starry stairs,-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And, in her fire-fly crown, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Queen Night, on velvet slippered feet, comes softly down. | 12 | ···/˘/˘··/˘· |
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.