The Night Fire
No engines shrieking rescue storm the night,And hose and hydrant cannot here avail;The flames laugh high and fling their challenging light,And clouds turn gray and black from silver-pale.The fire leaps out and licks the ancient walls,And the big building bends and twists and groans.A bar drops from its place; a rafter fallsBurning the flowers. The wind in frenzy moans.The watchers gaze, held wondering by the fire,The dwellers cry their sorrow to the crowd,The flames beyond themselves rise higher, higher,To lose their glory in the frowning cloud,Yielding at length the last reluctant breath.And where life lay asleep broods darkly death.
Words in this poem
- hydrant n.
- A discharge pipe with a valve and spout at which water may be drawn from the mains of waterworks; a water plug. [Gr. "y`dwr water. See Hydra.]
- rafter n.
- Originally, any rough and somewhat heavy piece of timber. Now, commonly, one of the timbers of a roof which are put on sloping, according to the inclination of the roof. See Illust. of Queen-post. [AS. ræfter; akin to E. raft, n. See Raft.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Night Fire is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harlem shadows, Project Gutenberg ebook #64989; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Claude McKay, The Night Fire, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/the-night-fire.html, id L01381.
Form and metre
The Night Fire is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG nightA · availB · lightA · paleB · wallsC · groansD · fallsC · moansD · fireE · crowdF · higherE · cloudF · breathG · deathG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No engines shrieking rescue storm the night, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| And hose and hydrant cannot here avail; | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The flames laugh high and fling their challenging light, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And clouds turn gray and black from silver-pale. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The fire leaps out and licks the ancient walls, | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| And the big building bends and twists and groans. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A bar drops from its place; a rafter falls | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Burning the flowers. The wind in frenzy moans. | 10 | /˘·/···/˘· |
| The watchers gaze, held wondering by the fire, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··/ |
| The dwellers cry their sorrow to the crowd, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The flames beyond themselves rise higher, higher, | 11 | ····˘/·/˘/˘ |
| To lose their glory in the frowning cloud, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Yielding at length the last reluctant breath. | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| And where life lay asleep broods darkly death. | 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.