After Sunset
Well might I in those days so fortunate,What time the sun lightened my path above,Have soared from earth to heaven, raised by her loveWho winged my labouring soul and sweetened fate.
That sun hath set; and I with hope elateWho deemed that those bright days would never move,Find that my thankless soul, deprived thereof,Declines to death, while heaven still bars the gate.
Love lent me wings; my path was like a stair;A lamp unto my feet, that sun was given;And death was safety and great joy to find.
But dying now, I shall not climb to heaven;Nor can mere memory cheer my heart's despair:--What help remains when hope is left behind?
Words in this poem
- labouring a.
- That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse, heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor; as, laboring days.
- elate a.
- Lifted up; raised; elevated. [L. elatus elevated, fig., elated, proud (the figure, perh., being borrowed from a prancing horse); e out + latus (used as p. p. of ferre to bear), for tlatus, a]
- thankless a.
- Not acknowledging favors; not expressing thankfulness; unthankful; ungrateful.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After Sunset is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, the John Addington Symonds translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Michelangelo Buonarroti, After Sunset, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/after-sunset.html, id L15205.
Form and metre
After Sunset is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -AAB fortunate · aboveA · loveA · fateB
- 2 B-AB elateB · move · thereofA · gateB
- 3 C-D stairC · given · findD
- 4 -CD heaven · despairC · behindD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Well might I in those days so fortunate, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| What time the sun lightened my path above, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Have soared from earth to heaven, raised by her love | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Who winged my labouring soul and sweetened fate. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That sun hath set; and I with hope elate | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Who deemed that those bright days would never move, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Find that my thankless soul, deprived thereof, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Declines to death, while heaven still bars the gate. | 10 | ˘/···/···· |
| Love lent me wings; my path was like a stair; | 10 | ·········· |
| A lamp unto my feet, that sun was given; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| And death was safety and great joy to find. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But dying now, I shall not climb to heaven; | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| Nor can mere memory cheer my heart's despair:-- | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| What help remains when hope is left behind? | 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.