The Evening Star
Lo! in the painted oriel of the West,Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines,Like a fair lady at her casement, shinesThe evening star, the star of love and rest!And then anon she doth herself divestOf all her radiant garments, and reclinesBehind the sombre screen of yonder pines,With slumber and soft dreams of love oppressed.O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus!My morning and my evening star of love!My best and gentlest lady! even thus,As that fair planet in the sky above,Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night,And from thy darkened window fades the light.
Words in this poem
- oriel n.
- A gallery for minstrels. W. Hamper. [OF. oriol gallery, corridor, LL. oriolum portico, hall, prob. fr. L. aureolus gilded, applied to an apartment decorated with gilding. See Oriole.]
- casement n.
- A window sash opening on hinges affixed to the upright side of the frame into which it is fitted. (Poetically) A window. [Shortened fr. encasement. See Incase 1st Case, and cf. Incasement.]
- anon adv.
- Straightway; at once. [OE. anoon, anon, anan, lit., in one (moment), fr. AS. on in + an one. See On and One.]
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- hesperus n.
- Venus when she is the evening star; Hesper. [L. See Hesper.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Evening Star 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, The Evening Star, in A Psalm of Life, and Other Poems (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-evening-star.html, id L17542.
Form and metre
The Evening Star is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 A-BAABBA-C-CDD westA · incarnadines · shinesB · restA · divestA · reclinesB · pinesB · oppressedA · hesperus · loveC · thus · aboveC · nightD · lightD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lo! in the painted oriel of the West, | 11 | ···/˘/˘˘··· |
| Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Like a fair lady at her casement, shines | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The evening star, the star of love and rest! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And then anon she doth herself divest | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘/ |
| Of all her radiant garments, and reclines | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Behind the sombre screen of yonder pines, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With slumber and soft dreams of love oppressed. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus! | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| My morning and my evening star of love! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| My best and gentlest lady! even thus, | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/· |
| As that fair planet in the sky above, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| And from thy darkened window fades the light. | 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.