The Day of Coming Days
Bright seas cast far upon her shoreWhite flowers of flying spray:The blossoms of her fields are more,Than blossomed yesterday:The music of her winds and birdsAlone can tell the triumph words,Her children cannot say.
The stars from solemn deeps look downIn favour and delight:The glories of her day, they crownWith splendours of her night:The queen of the adoring Gael,Their radiant mother, Inisfail,Reigns, by divinest right.
Words in this poem
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
- gael n.
- A Celt or the Celts of the Scotch Highlands or of Ireland; now esp., a Scotch Highlander of Celtic origin. [See Gaelic.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Day of Coming Days is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lionel Johnson, The Day of Coming Days, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/the-day-of-coming-days.html, id L12541.
Form and metre
The Day of Coming Days is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCCB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic 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.
- 1 ABABCCB shoreA · sprayB · moreA · yesterdayB · birdsC · wordsC · sayB
- 2 ABABCCB downA · delightB · crownA · nightB · gaelC · inisfailC · rightB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Bright seas cast far upon her shore | 8 | ········ |
| White flowers of flying spray: | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| The blossoms of her fields are more, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Than blossomed yesterday: | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The music of her winds and birds | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Alone can tell the triumph words, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Her children cannot say. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The stars from solemn deeps look down | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In favour and delight: | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The glories of her day, they crown | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With splendours of her night: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The queen of the adoring Gael, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Their radiant mother, Inisfail, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Reigns, by divinest right. | 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.