Firelight and Nightfall

D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) · 1916

iambic pentameter · ABBA · 12 lines · from Amores

THE darkness steals the forms of all the queens,But oh, the palms of his two black hands are red,Inflamed with binding up the sheaves of deadHours that were once all glory and all queens.

And I remember all the sunny hoursOf queens in hyacinth and skies of gold,And morning singing where the woods are scrolledAnd diapered above the chaunting flowers.

Here lamps are white like snowdrops in the grass;The town is like a churchyard, all so stillAnd grey now night is here; nor willAnother torn red sunset come to pass.

Words in this poem

sunny a.: Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
scrolled a.: Formed like a scroll; contained in a scroll; adorned with scrolls; as, scrolled work.
churchyard n.: The ground adjoining a church, in which the dead are buried; a cemetery.

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

About this text

Firelight and Nightfall is in the public domain. This text is taken from Amores: Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22531; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: D. H. Lawrence, Firelight and Nightfall, in Amores (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22531, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lawrence-amores/firelight-and-nightfall.html, id L13600.

Form and metre

Firelight and Nightfall is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% 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 ABBA queens^A · red^B · dead^B · queens^A
2 ABBA hours^A · gold^B · scrolled^B · flowers^A
3 ABBA grass^A · still^B · will^B · pass^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
THE darkness steals the forms of all the queens,	10	·/˘·······
But oh, the palms of his two black hands are red,	11	···········
Inflamed with binding up the sheaves of dead	10	˘/·/˘·····
Hours that were once all glory and all queens.	10	/····/˘···
And I remember all the sunny hours	11	··˘/˘··/˘/˘
Of queens in hyacinth and skies of gold,	10	···/˘·····
And morning singing where the woods are scrolled	10	·/˘/˘·····
And diapered above the chaunting flowers.	10	·/˘·····/˘
Here lamps are white like snowdrops in the grass;	10	··········
The town is like a churchyard, all so still	10	·····/····
And grey now night is here; nor will	8	········
Another torn red sunset come to pass.	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 D. H. Lawrence

Amores