Love’s Vigil
Love will outwatch the stars, and light the skiesWhen the last star falls, and the silent dark devours;God’s warrior, he will watch the allotted hours,And conquer with the look of his sad eyes:He shakes the kingdom of darkness with his sighs,His quiet sighs, while all the Infernal PowersTremble and pale upon their central towers,Lest, haply, his bright universe arise.
All will be well if he have strength to wait,Till his lost Pleiad, white and silver-shod,Regains her place to make the perfect Seven;Then all the worlds will know that Love is Fate--That somehow he is greater even than Heaven--That in the Cosmic Council he is God.
Words in this poem
- outwatch v. t.
- To exceed in watching.
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- pleiad n.
- One of the Pleiades.
- somehow adv.
- In one way or another; in some way not yet known or designated; by some means; as, the thing must be done somehow; he lives somehow.
- cosmic a.
- Pertaining to the universe, and having special reference to universal law or order, or to the one grand harmonious system of things; hence; harmonious; orderly. [Gr. kosmiko`s of the world, fr. ko`smos: cf. F. cosmique. See Cosmos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love’s Vigil is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, Love’s Vigil, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/love-s-vigil.html, id L24758.
Form and metre
Love’s Vigil is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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 ABBAABBA skiesA · devoursB · hoursB · eyesA · sighsA · powersB · towersB · ariseA
- 2 ABCACB waitA · shodB · sevenC · fateA · heavenC · godB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love will outwatch the stars, and light the skies | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| When the last star falls, and the silent dark devours; | 12 | ·······/˘·˘/ |
| God’s warrior, he will watch the allotted hours, | 11 | ·/˘····˘/˘/ |
| And conquer with the look of his sad eyes: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| He shakes the kingdom of darkness with his sighs, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| His quiet sighs, while all the Infernal Powers | 11 | ·/····˘/˘/˘ |
| Tremble and pale upon their central towers, | 11 | /˘·····/˘/˘ |
| Lest, haply, his bright universe arise. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| All will be well if he have strength to wait, | 10 | ·········· |
| Till his lost Pleiad, white and silver-shod, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Regains her place to make the perfect Seven; | 11 | ˘/·····/·/˘ |
| Then all the worlds will know that Love is Fate-- | 10 | ·········· |
| That somehow he is greater even than Heaven-- | 11 | ·/···/˘/·/˘ |
| That in the Cosmic Council he is God. | 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.