Midsummer Night
The perfect disc of the sacred moonThrough still blue heaven serenely swims,And the lone bird's liquid music brimsThe peace of the night with a perfect tune.
This is that holiest night of the yearWhen (the mowers say) may be heard and seenThe ghostly court of the English queen,Who rides to harry and hunt the deer.
And the woodland creatures cower awake,A strange unrest is on harts and does,For the maiden Dian a-hunting goes,And the trembling deer are afoot in the brake.
They start at a shaken leaf: the soundOf a dry twig snapped by a squirrel's footIs a nameless dread: and to them the hootOf a mousing owl is the cry of a hound.
Oh soon the forest will ring with cries,The dim green coverts will flash: the grassWill glow as the radiant hunters passAfter the quarry with burning eyes.
The hurrying feet will range unstayedOf questing goddess and hunted fawn,Till the east is grey with the sacred dawn,And the red cock wakens the milking maid.
Words in this poem
- disc n.
- A flat round plate; (Biol.) [See Disk, Dish.]
- serenely adv.
- In a serene manner; clearly.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- harry v. i.
- To make a predatory incursion; to plunder or lay waste.
- unrest n.
- Want of rest or repose; unquietness; sleeplessness; uneasiness; disquietude.
- nameless a.
- Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
- hoot v. i.
- To cry out or shout in contempt. [OE. hoten, houten, huten; cf. OSw. huta, Sw. huta ut to take one up sharply, fr. Sw. hut interj., begone! cf. also W. hwt off! off with it! away! hoot!]
- mousing a.
- Impertinently inquisitive; prying; meddlesome.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Midsummer Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #40717; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Masefield, Midsummer Night, in The Story of a Round-House, and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #40717, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-round-house/midsummer-night.html, id L25005.
Form and metre
Midsummer Night is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%).
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 moonA · swimsB · brimsB · tuneA
- 2 ABBA yearA · seenB · queenB · deerA
- 3 A--A awakeA · does · goes · brakeA
- 4 A--A soundA · foot · hoot · houndA
- 5 ABBA criesA · grassB · passB · eyesA
- 6 ABBA unstayedA · fawnB · dawnB · maidA
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 perfect disc of the sacred moon | 10 | ·˘/···/˘˘· |
| Through still blue heaven serenely swims, | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘˘· |
| And the lone bird's liquid music brims | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| The peace of the night with a perfect tune. | 10 | ·······˘/· |
| This is that holiest night of the year | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| When (the mowers say) may be heard and seen | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| The ghostly court of the English queen, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Who rides to harry and hunt the deer. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And the woodland creatures cower awake, | 10 | ··/˘/˘/˘˘/ |
| A strange unrest is on harts and does, | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| For the maiden Dian a-hunting goes, | 10 | ··/˘/˘·/˘· |
| And the trembling deer are afoot in the brake. | 11 | ··/˘··˘/··· |
| They start at a shaken leaf: the sound | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Of a dry twig snapped by a squirrel's foot | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Is a nameless dread: and to them the hoot | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Of a mousing owl is the cry of a hound. | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Oh soon the forest will ring with cries, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The dim green coverts will flash: the grass | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Will glow as the radiant hunters pass | 10 | ····/˘˘/˘· |
| After the quarry with burning eyes. | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| The hurrying feet will range unstayed | 9 | ·/˘˘····˘ |
| Of questing goddess and hunted fawn, | 9 | ·/˘/˘·/˘· |
| Till the east is grey with the sacred dawn, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the red cock wakens the milking maid. | 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.