Night

Sidney Lanier (1842–1881) · 1884

iambic pentameter · heroic couplets · 24 lines · from Poems

Fair is the wedded reign of Night and Day.Each rules a half of earth with different sway,Exchanging kingdoms, East and West, alway.

Like the round pearl that Egypt drunk in wine,The sun half sinks i' the brimming, rosy brine:The wild Night drinks all up: how her eyes shine!

Now the swift sail of straining life is furled,And through the stillness of my soul is whirledThe throbbing of the hearts of half the world.

I hear the cries that follow Birth and Death.I hear huge Pestilence draw his vaporous breath:"Beware, prepare, or else ye die," he saith.

I hear a haggard student turn and sigh:I hear men begging Heaven to let them die:And, drowning all, a wild-eyed woman's cry.

So Night takes toll of Wisdom as of Sin.The student's and the drunkard's cheek is thin:But flesh is not the prize we strive to win.

Now airy swarms of fluttering dreams descendOn souls, like birds on trees, and have no end.O God, from vulture-dreams my soul defend!

Let fall on Her a rose-leaf rain of dreams,All passionate-sweet, as are the loving beamsOf starlight on the glimmering woods and streams.

Words in this poem

wedded a.: Joined in wedlock; married.
brimming a.: Full to the brim; overflowing.
stillness n.: The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
beware v. t.: To avoid; to take care of; to have a care for.
saith: 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
haggard a.: Wild or intractable; disposed to break away from duty; untamed; as, a haggard or refractory hawk. Shak [F. hagard; of German origin, and prop. meaning, of the hegde or woods, wild, untamed. See Hedge, 1st Haw, and -ard.]
starlight n.: The light given by the stars.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Sidney Lanier, Project Gutenberg ebook #579; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Sidney Lanier, Night, in Poems (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #579, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lanier-poems/night.html, id L07698.

Form and metre

Night is 24 lines in 8 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AA- day^A · sway^A · alway
2 AAA wine^A · brine^A · shine^A
3 AAA furled^A · whirled^A · world^A
4 AAA death^A · breath^A · saith^A
5 AAA sigh^A · die^A · cry^A
6 AAA sin^A · thin^A · win^A
7 AAA descend^A · end^A · defend^A
8 AAA dreams^A · beams^A · streams^A

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
Fair is the wedded reign of Night and Day.	10	···/˘·····
Each rules a half of earth with different sway,	10	·······/˘·
Exchanging kingdoms, East and West, alway.	10	˘/˘/˘···/˘
Like the round pearl that Egypt drunk in wine,	10	·····/˘···
The sun half sinks i' the brimming, rosy brine:	11	······/˘/˘·
The wild Night drinks all up: how her eyes shine!	10	··········
Now the swift sail of straining life is furled,	10	·····/˘···
And through the stillness of my soul is whirled	10	···/˘·····
The throbbing of the hearts of half the world.	10	·/˘·······
I hear the cries that follow Birth and Death.	10	·····/˘···
I hear huge Pestilence draw his vaporous breath:	11	···/˘··/˘˘·
"Beware, prepare, or else ye die," he saith.	10	˘/˘/······
I hear a haggard student turn and sigh:	10	···/˘/˘···
I hear men begging Heaven to let them die:	10	···/˘/····
And, drowning all, a wild-eyed woman's cry.	10	·/˘····/˘·
So Night takes toll of Wisdom as of Sin.	10	·····/˘···
The student's and the drunkard's cheek is thin:	10	·/˘··/˘···
But flesh is not the prize we strive to win.	10	··········
Now airy swarms of fluttering dreams descend	10	·/˘··/˘·˘/
On souls, like birds on trees, and have no end.	10	··········
O God, from vulture-dreams my soul defend!	10	···/˘···˘/
Let fall on Her a rose-leaf rain of dreams,	10	··········
All passionate-sweet, as are the loving beams	10	·/˘····/˘·
Of starlight on the glimmering woods and streams.	10	·/···/˘···

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.

More by Sidney Lanier

Poems