Song of the Night at Daybreak
All my stars forsake me,And the dawn-winds shake me.Where shall I betake me?
Whither shall I runTill the set of sun,Till the day be done?
To the mountain-mine,To the boughs o' the pine,To the blind man's eyne,
To a brow that isBowed upon the knees,Sick with memories.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- betake v. t.
- To take or seize. [Pref. be- + take.]
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- eyne n.
- Plural of eye; obsolete, or used only in poetry.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song of the Night at Daybreak is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1186; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alice Meynell, Song of the Night at Daybreak, in Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1186, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meynell-poems/song-of-the-night-at-daybreak.html, id L12876.
Form and metre
Song of the Night at Daybreak is 12 lines in 4 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 AAA meA · meA · meA
- 2 AAA runA · sunA · doneA
- 3 AA- mineA · pineA · eyne
- 4 AAA isA · kneesA · memoriesA
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| All my stars forsake me, | 6 | ···˘/· |
| And the dawn-winds shake me. | 6 | ······ |
| Where shall I betake me? | 6 | ···˘/· |
| Whither shall I run | 5 | /˘··· |
| Till the set of sun, | 5 | ····· |
| Till the day be done? | 5 | ····· |
| To the mountain-mine, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| To the boughs o' the pine, | 6 | ······ |
| To the blind man's eyne, | 5 | ····· |
| To a brow that is | 5 | ····· |
| Bowed upon the knees, | 5 | ····· |
| Sick with memories. | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
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.