A Song in the Night
I would I were an angel strong,An angel of the sun, hasting along!
I would I were just come awake,A child outbursting from night's dusky brake!
Or lark whose inward, upward fateMocks every wall that masks the heavenly gate!
Or hopeful cock whose clarion clearShrills ten times ere a film of dawn appear!
Or but a glowworm: even thenMy light would come straight from the Light of Men!
I am a dead seed, dark and slow:Father of larks and children, make me grow.
Words in this poem
- hopeful a.
- Full of hope, or agreeable expectation; inclined to hope; expectant.
- clarion n.
- A kind of trumpet, whose note is clear and shrill. [OE. clarioun, OF. clarion, F. clairon, LL. clario, claro; so called from its clear tone, fr. L. clarus clear. See Clear.]
- glowworm n.
- A coleopterous insect of the genus Lampyris; esp., the wingless females and larvæ of the two European species (L. noctiluca, and L.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song in the Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, A Song in the Night, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/a-song-in-the-night-2.html, id L22308.
Form and metre
A Song in the Night is 12 lines in 6 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AA strongA · alongA
- 2 AA awakeA · brakeA
- 3 AA fateA · gateA
- 4 AA clearA · appearA
- 5 AA thenA · menA
- 6 AA slowA · growA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I would I were an angel strong, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| An angel of the sun, hasting along! | 10 | ·/˘···/˘˘/ |
| I would I were just come awake, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| A child outbursting from night's dusky brake! | 10 | ··/·˘··/˘· |
| Or lark whose inward, upward fate | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Mocks every wall that masks the heavenly gate! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Or hopeful cock whose clarion clear | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| Shrills ten times ere a film of dawn appear! | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Or but a glowworm: even then | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| My light would come straight from the Light of Men! | 10 | ·········· |
| I am a dead seed, dark and slow: | 8 | ········ |
| Father of larks and children, make me grow. | 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.