On the Gulf of Night
The world’s sad petrels dwell for evermoreOn windy headland or on ocean floor,Or pierce the violent skies with perilous flightsThat fret men in their palaces o’ nights,Breaking enchanted slumber’s easeful boat,With shudderings of their wild and dolorous note;They blow about the black and barren skies,They fill the night with ineffectual cries.
There is for them not anything before,But sound of sea and sight of soundless shore,Save when the darkness glimmers with a ray,And Hope sings softly, Soon it will be day.Then for a golden space the shades are thinned,And dawn seems blowing seaward on the wind.But soon the dark comes wilder than before,And swift around them breaks a sullen roar;The tempest calls to windward and to lea,And--they are seabirds on the homeless sea.
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- easeful a.
- Full of ease; suitable for affording ease or rest; quiet; comfortable; restful.
- dolorous a.
- Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; doleful; dismal; as, a dolorous object; dolorous discourses. [L. dolorosus, from dolor: cf. F. douloureux. See Dolor.]
- soundless a.
- Not capable of being sounded or fathomed; unfathomable.
- seaward a.
- Directed or situated toward the sea. Donne.
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- homeless a.
- Destitute of a home. [AS.hamleas.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Gulf of Night 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, On the Gulf of Night, 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/on-the-gulf-of-night.html, id L24798.
Form and metre
On the Gulf of Night is 18 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 AABBCCDD evermoreA · floorA · flightsB · nightsB · boatC · noteC · skiesD · criesD
- 2 AABBCCAADD beforeA · shoreA · rayB · dayB · thinnedC · windC · beforeA · roarA · leaD · seaD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The world’s sad petrels dwell for evermore | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| On windy headland or on ocean floor, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Or pierce the violent skies with perilous flights | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That fret men in their palaces o’ nights, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Breaking enchanted slumber’s easeful boat, | 10 | /˘˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| With shudderings of their wild and dolorous note; | 11 | ·/˘····/˘˘· |
| They blow about the black and barren skies, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| They fill the night with ineffectual cries. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| There is for them not anything before, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But sound of sea and sight of soundless shore, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Save when the darkness glimmers with a ray, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And Hope sings softly, Soon it will be day. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Then for a golden space the shades are thinned, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And dawn seems blowing seaward on the wind. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| But soon the dark comes wilder than before, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And swift around them breaks a sullen roar; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The tempest calls to windward and to lea, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And--they are seabirds on the homeless sea. | 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.