Twilight
So Mary died last night! To-dayThe news has travelled here.And Robert died at Michaelmas,And Walter died last year.
I went at sunset up the lane,I lingered by the stile;I saw the dusky fields that stretchedBefore me many a mile.
I leaned against the stile, and thoughtOf her whose soul had fled.--I knew that years on years must passOr e’er I should be dead.
Words in this poem
- michaelmas n.
- The feat of the archangel Michael, a church festival, celebrated on the 29th of September. Hence, colloquially, autumn. [Michael + mass religious service; OE. Mighelmesse.]
- walter v. i.
- To roll or wallow; to welter. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] [See Welter.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- stile n.
- A pin set on the face of a dial, to cast a shadow; a style. See Style. Moxon. [See Style.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Twilight is in the public domain. This text is taken from A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #56974; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Amy Levy, Twilight, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/twilight.html, id L21547.
Form and metre
Twilight is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A day · hereA · michaelmas · yearA
- 2 -A-A lane · stileA · stretched · mileA
- 3 -A-A thought · fledA · pass · deadA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| So Mary died last night! To-day | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The news has travelled here. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And Robert died at Michaelmas, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| And Walter died last year. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I went at sunset up the lane, | 8 | ···/···· |
| I lingered by the stile; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I saw the dusky fields that stretched | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Before me many a mile. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| I leaned against the stile, and thought | 8 | ········ |
| Of her whose soul had fled.-- | 6 | ······ |
| I knew that years on years must pass | 8 | ········ |
| Or e’er I should be dead. | 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.