Daylight and Moonlight
In broad daylight, and at noon,Yesterday I saw the moonSailing high, but faint and white,As a school-boy's paper kite.
In broad daylight, yesterday,I read a Poet's mystic lay;And it seemed to me at mostAs a phantom, or a ghost.
But at length the feverish dayLike a passion died away,And the night, serene and still,Fell on village, vale, and hill.
Then the moon, in all her pride,Like a spirit glorified,Filled and overflowed the nightWith revelations of her light.
And the Poet's song againPassed like music through my brain;Night interpreted to meAll its grace and mystery.
Words in this poem
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Daylight and Moonlight 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, Daylight and Moonlight, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/daylight-and-moonlight.html, id L17623.
Form and metre
Daylight and Moonlight is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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 AABB noonA · moonA · whiteB · kiteB
- 2 AABB yesterdayA · layA · mostB · ghostB
- 3 AABB dayA · awayA · stillB · hillB
- 4 AABB prideA · glorifiedA · nightB · lightB
- 5 AA-- againA · brainA · me · mystery
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In broad daylight, and at noon, | 7 | ··/···· |
| Yesterday I saw the moon | 7 | /˘····· |
| Sailing high, but faint and white, | 7 | /˘····· |
| As a school-boy's paper kite. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| In broad daylight, yesterday, | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
| I read a Poet's mystic lay; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And it seemed to me at most | 8 | ···˘···· |
| As a phantom, or a ghost. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| But at length the feverish day | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Like a passion died away, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| And the night, serene and still, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Fell on village, vale, and hill. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Then the moon, in all her pride, | 7 | ······· |
| Like a spirit glorified, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Filled and overflowed the night | 8 | ·˘··˘/·· |
| With revelations of her light. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| And the Poet's song again | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Passed like music through my brain; | 8 | ·˘·/˘··· |
| Night interpreted to me | 7 | ·˘/˘˘·· |
| All its grace and mystery. | 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.