Sacred Night
All hollow vaults and dungeons sealed from sight,All caverns circumscribed with roof and wall,Defend dark Night, though noon around her fall,From the fierce play of solar day-beams bright.But if she be assailed by fire or light,Her powers divine are nought; they tremble allBefore things far more vile and trivial--Even a glow-worm can confound their might.The earth that lies bare to the sun, and breedsA thousand germs that burgeon and decay--This earth is wounded by the ploughman's share:But only darkness serves for human seeds;Night therefore is more sacred far than day,Since man excels all fruits however fair.
Words in this poem
- trivial a.
- Found anywhere; common. [L. trivialis, properly, that is in, or belongs to, the crossroads or public streets; hence, that may be found everywhere, common, fr. trivium a place where thre]
- burgeon v. i.
- To bud. See Bourgeon.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sacred Night 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, Sacred Night, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/michelangelo-sonnets/sacred-night.html, id L15184.
Form and metre
Sacred Night is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian 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 ABBAABBACDECDE sightA · wallB · fallB · brightA · lightA · allB · trivialB · mightA · breedsC · decayD · shareE · seedsC · dayD · fairE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| All hollow vaults and dungeons sealed from sight, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| All caverns circumscribed with roof and wall, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| Defend dark Night, though noon around her fall, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| From the fierce play of solar day-beams bright. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But if she be assailed by fire or light, | 10 | ····˘/·/·· |
| Her powers divine are nought; they tremble all | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| Before things far more vile and trivial-- | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Even a glow-worm can confound their might. | 10 | /˘····/··· |
| The earth that lies bare to the sun, and breeds | 10 | ·········· |
| A thousand germs that burgeon and decay-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| This earth is wounded by the ploughman's share: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But only darkness serves for human seeds; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Night therefore is more sacred far than day, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Since man excels all fruits however fair. | 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.