A June Night
Ten o'clock: the broken moonHangs not yet a half hour high,Yellow as a shield of brass,In the dewy air of June,Poised between the vaulted skyAnd the ocean's liquid glass.
Earth lies in the shadow still;Low black bushes, trees, and lawnNight's ambrosial dews absorb;Through the foliage creeps a thrill,Whispering of yon spectral dawnAnd the hidden climbing orb.
Higher, higher, gathering light,Veiling with a golden gauzeAll the trembling atmosphere,See, the rayless disk grows white!Hark, the glittering billows pause!
Elves on such a night as thisSpin their rings upon the grass;On the beach the water-fayGreets her lover with a kiss;Through the air swift spirits pass,Laugh, caress, and float away.
Shut thy lids and thou shalt seeAngel faces wreathed with light,Mystic forms long vanished hence.Ah, too fine, too rare, they beFor the grosser mortal sight,And they foil our waking sense.
Yet we feel them floating near,Know that we are not alone,Though our open eyes beholdNothing save the moon's bright sphere,In the vacant heavens shown,And the ocean's path of gold.
Words in this poem
- ambrosial a.
- Consisting of, or partaking of the nature of, ambrosia; delighting the taste or smell; delicious.
- veiling n.
- A veil; a thin covering; also, material for making veils.
- rayless a.
- Destitute of rays; hence, dark; not illuminated; blind; as, a rayless sky; rayless eyes.
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A June Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #3295; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emma Lazarus, A June Night, in Poems, Volume I (1867–1887), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3295, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lazarus-poems/a-june-night.html, id L01910.
Form and metre
A June Night is 35 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABCABC, complete in 5 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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.
- 1 ABCABC moonA · highB · brassC · juneA · skyB · glassC
- 2 ABCABC stillA · lawnB · absorbC · thrillA · dawnB · orbC
- 3 AB-AB lightA · gauzeB · atmosphere · whiteA · pauseB
- 4 ABCABC thisA · grassB · fayC · kissA · passB · awayC
- 5 ABCABC seeA · lightB · henceC · beA · sightB · senseC
- 6 ABCABC nearA · aloneB · beholdC · sphereA · shownB · goldC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ten o'clock: the broken moon | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Hangs not yet a half hour high, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Yellow as a shield of brass, | 7 | /˘····· |
| In the dewy air of June, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Poised between the vaulted sky | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the ocean's liquid glass. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Earth lies in the shadow still; | 7 | ····/·· |
| Low black bushes, trees, and lawn | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Night's ambrosial dews absorb; | 7 | ·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Through the foliage creeps a thrill, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Whispering of yon spectral dawn | 8 | /˘˘··/˘· |
| And the hidden climbing orb. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Higher, higher, gathering light, | 8 | /˘/˘/˘˘· |
| Veiling with a golden gauze | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| All the trembling atmosphere, | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| See, the rayless disk grows white! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Hark, the glittering billows pause! | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Elves on such a night as this | 7 | ······· |
| Spin their rings upon the grass; | 7 | ······· |
| On the beach the water-fay | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Greets her lover with a kiss; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Through the air swift spirits pass, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Laugh, caress, and float away. | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Shut thy lids and thou shalt see | 7 | ······· |
| Angel faces wreathed with light, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Mystic forms long vanished hence. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Ah, too fine, too rare, they be | 7 | ······· |
| For the grosser mortal sight, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| And they foil our waking sense. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Yet we feel them floating near, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Know that we are not alone, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Though our open eyes behold | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Nothing save the moon's bright sphere, | 7 | /˘····· |
| In the vacant heavens shown, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| And the ocean's path of gold. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.