Written on a Stormy Night
O wild and dark! a night hath found me nowWherein I mingle with that elementSent madly loose through the wide staring rentIn yon tormented branches! I will bowA while unto the storm, and thenceforth growInto a mighty patience strongly bentBefore the unconquering Power which hither sentThese winds to fight their battles on my brow!--Again the loud boughs thunder! and the dinLicks up my footfall from the hissing earth!But I have found a mighty peace within,And I have risen into a home of mirth!Wildly I climb above the shaking spires,Above the sobbing clouds, up through the steady fires!
Words in this poem
- madly adv.
- In a mad manner; without reason or understanding; wildly. [From Mad, a.]
- thenceforth adv.
- From that time; thereafter.
- footfall n.
- A setting down of the foot; a footstep; the sound of a footstep.
- sobbing n.
- A series of short, convulsive inspirations, the glottis being suddenly closed so that little or no air enters into the lungs.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Written on a Stormy 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, Written on a Stormy Night, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/written-on-a-stormy-night.html, id L22474.
Form and metre
Written on a Stormy Night is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABBA-BBACDCDEE nowA · elementB · rentB · bowA · grow · bentB · sentB · browA · dinC · earthD · withinC · mirthD · spiresE · firesE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O wild and dark! a night hath found me now | 10 | ·········· |
| Wherein I mingle with that element | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Sent madly loose through the wide staring rent | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| In yon tormented branches! I will bow | 10 | ··/·˘/˘··· |
| A while unto the storm, and thenceforth grow | 10 | ········/· |
| Into a mighty patience strongly bent | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Before the unconquering Power which hither sent | 12 | ·······/·/˘· |
| These winds to fight their battles on my brow!-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Again the loud boughs thunder! and the din | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Licks up my footfall from the hissing earth! | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| But I have found a mighty peace within, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And I have risen into a home of mirth! | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Wildly I climb above the shaking spires, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Above the sobbing clouds, up through the steady fires! | 12 | ···/˘····/˘/ |
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.