Afternoon in February
The day is ending,The night is descending;The marsh is frozen,The river dead.
Through clouds like ashesThe red sun flashesOn village windowsThat glimmer red.
The snow recommences;The buried fencesMark no longerThe road o'er the plain;
While through the meadows,Like fearful shadows,Slowly passesA funeral train.
The bell is pealing,And every feelingWithin me respondsTo the dismal knell;
Shadows are trailing,My heart is bewailingAnd tolling withinLike a funeral bell.
Words in this poem
- dismal a.
- Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky. [Formerly a noun; e. g., "I trow it was in the dismalle." Chaucer. Of uncertain origin; but perh. (as suggested by Skeat) from OF. disme, F. dîme, tithe, the phr]
- bewailing a.
- Wailing over; lamenting.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Afternoon in February is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Afternoon in February, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/afternoon-in-february.html, id L17535.
Form and metre
Afternoon in February is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables. 13 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 trimeter.
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-B endingA · descendingA · frozen · deadB
- 2 ---B ashes · flashes · windows · redB
- 3 CC-D recommencesC · fencesC · longer · plainD
- 4 EE-D meadowsE · shadowsE · passes · trainD
- 5 FF-G pealingF · feelingF · responds · knellG
- 6 HH-G trailingH · bewailingH · within · bellG
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The day is ending, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The night is descending; | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| The marsh is frozen, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The river dead. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Through clouds like ashes | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The red sun flashes | 5 | ···/˘ |
| On village windows | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| That glimmer red. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The snow recommences; | 6 | ······ |
| The buried fences | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Mark no longer | 4 | ··/˘ |
| The road o'er the plain; | 5 | ····· |
| While through the meadows, | 5 | ···/· |
| Like fearful shadows, | 5 | ·/˘/· |
| Slowly passes | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| A funeral train. | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| The bell is pealing, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And every feeling | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| Within me responds | 5 | ···˘/ |
| To the dismal knell; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Shadows are trailing, | 5 | /··/˘ |
| My heart is bewailing | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| And tolling within | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Like a funeral bell. | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.