The Last Quarter of the Moon
How long shall I tarnish the mirror of life,A spatter of rust on its polished steel!The seasons reelLike a goaded wheel.Half-numb, half-maddened, my days are strife.
The night is sliding towards the dawn,And upturned hills crouch at autumn's knees.A torn moon fleesThrough the hemlock trees,The hours have gnawed it to feed their spawn.
Pursuing and jeering the misshapen thingA rabble of clouds flares out of the east.Like dogs unleashedAfter a beast,They stream on the sky, an outflung string.
A desolate wind, through the unpeopled dark,Shakes the bushes and whistles through empty nests,And the fierce unrestsI keep as guestsCrowd my brain with corpses, pallid and stark.
Leave me in peace, O Spectres, who hauntMy labouring mind, I have fought and failed.I have not quailed,I was all unmailedAnd naked I strove, 'tis my only vaunt.
The moon drops into the silver dayAs waking out of her swoon she comes.I hear the drumsOf millenniumsBeating the mornings I still must stay.
The years I must watch go in and out,While I build with water, and dig in air,And the trumpets blareHollow despair,The shuddering trumpets of utter rout.
An atom tossed in a chaos madeOf yeasting worlds, which bubble and foam.Whence have I come?What would be home?I hear no answer. I am afraid!
I crave to be lost like a wind-blown flame.Pushed into nothingness by a breath,And quench in a wreathOf engulfing deathThis fight for a God, or this devil's game.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- jeering a.
- Mocking; scoffing.
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- labouring a.
- That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse, heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor; as, laboring days.
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
- blare v. i.
- To sound loudly and somewhat harshly. [OE. blaren, bloren, to cry, woop; cf. G. plärren to bleat, D. blaren to bleat, cry, weep. Prob. an imitative word, but cf. also E. blast. Cf. Blore.]
- chaos n.
- An empty, immeasurable space; a yawning chasm. [L. chaos chaos (in senses 1 & 2), Gr. Chasm.]
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Last Quarter of the Moon is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, Project Gutenberg ebook #1020; 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 Lowell, The Last Quarter of the Moon, in Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1020, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-amy-sword-blades/the-last-quarter-of-the-moon.html, id L08214.
Form and metre
The Last Quarter of the Moon is 45 lines in 9 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBBA, complete in 6 of its 9 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 ABBBA lifeA · steelB · reelB · wheelB · strifeA
- 2 ABBBA dawnA · kneesB · fleesB · treesB · spawnA
- 3 AB-BA thingA · eastB · unleashed · beastB · stringA
- 4 AB-BA darkA · nestsB · unrests · guestsB · starkA
- 5 ABBBA hauntA · failedB · quailedB · unmailedB · vauntA
- 6 ABBBA dayA · comesB · drumsB · millenniumsB · stayA
- 7 ABBBA outA · airB · blareB · despairB · routA
- 8 ABBBA madeA · foamB · comeB · homeB · afraidA
- 9 AB-BA flameA · breathB · wreath · deathB · gameA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How long shall I tarnish the mirror of life, | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| A spatter of rust on its polished steel! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The seasons reel | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Like a goaded wheel. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Half-numb, half-maddened, my days are strife. | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| The night is sliding towards the dawn, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And upturned hills crouch at autumn's knees. | 10 | ·˘/˘···/˘· |
| A torn moon flees | 4 | ···· |
| Through the hemlock trees, | 5 | ··/·· |
| The hours have gnawed it to feed their spawn. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Pursuing and jeering the misshapen thing | 11 | ˘/˘·/˘·˘/˘· |
| A rabble of clouds flares out of the east. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Like dogs unleashed | 4 | ··˘/ |
| After a beast, | 4 | ···· |
| They stream on the sky, an outflung string. | 9 | ········· |
| A desolate wind, through the unpeopled dark, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Shakes the bushes and whistles through empty nests, | 11 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| And the fierce unrests | 5 | ···˘/ |
| I keep as guests | 4 | ···· |
| Crowd my brain with corpses, pallid and stark. | 10 | ····/˘/˘·· |
| Leave me in peace, O Spectres, who haunt | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| My labouring mind, I have fought and failed. | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| I have not quailed, | 4 | ···· |
| I was all unmailed | 5 | ····· |
| And naked I strove, 'tis my only vaunt. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The moon drops into the silver day | 9 | ······/˘· |
| As waking out of her swoon she comes. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| I hear the drums | 4 | ···· |
| Of millenniums | 5 | ·˘/˘˘ |
| Beating the mornings I still must stay. | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| The years I must watch go in and out, | 9 | ········· |
| While I build with water, and dig in air, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And the trumpets blare | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Hollow despair, | 4 | /˘˘/ |
| The shuddering trumpets of utter rout. | 10 | ·/˘˘/˘·/˘· |
| An atom tossed in a chaos made | 10 | ·/˘·˘··/˘· |
| Of yeasting worlds, which bubble and foam. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| Whence have I come? | 4 | ···· |
| What would be home? | 4 | ···· |
| I hear no answer. I am afraid! | 9 | ···/˘··˘/ |
| I crave to be lost like a wind-blown flame. | 10 | ·········· |
| Pushed into nothingness by a breath, | 10 | ·˘··/˘˘··· |
| And quench in a wreath | 5 | ····· |
| Of engulfing death | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| This fight for a God, or this devil's game. | 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.