An April Night
The moon comes up o'er the deeps of the woods,And the long, low dingles that hide in the hills,Where the ancient beeches are moist with budsOver the pools and the whimpering rills;
And with her the mists, like dryads that creepFrom their oaks, or the spirits of pine-hid springs,Who hold, while the eyes of the world are asleep,With the wind on the hills their gay revellings.
Down on the marshlands with flicker and glowWanders Will-o'-the-Wisp through the night,Seeking for witch-gold lost long agoBy the glimmer of goblin lantern-light.
The night is a sorceress, dusk-eyed and dear,Akin to all eerie and elfin things,Who weaves about us in meadow and mereThe spell of a hundred vanished Springs.
Words in this poem
- flicker v. i.
- To flutter; to flap the wings without flying. [OE. flikeren, flekeren, to flutter, AS. flicerian, flicorian, cf. D. flikkeren to sparkle. Flacker.]
- eerie a.
- Serving to inspire fear, esp. a dread of seeing ghosts; wild; weird; as, eerie stories. [Scotch, fr. AS. earh timid.]
- elfin a.
- Relating to elves.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An April Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Watchman and Other Poems (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917; Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: L. M. Montgomery, An April Night, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/an-april-night.html, id L29381.
Form and metre
An April Night is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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 ABAB woodsA · hillsB · budsA · rillsB
- 2 ABAB creepA · springsB · asleepA · revellingsB
- 3 ABAB glowA · nightB · agoA · lightB
- 4 ABAB dearA · thingsB · mereA · springsB
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 moon comes up o'er the deeps of the woods, | 10 | ·········· |
| And the long, low dingles that hide in the hills, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Where the ancient beeches are moist with buds | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| Over the pools and the whimpering rills; | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| And with her the mists, like dryads that creep | 9 | ········· |
| From their oaks, or the spirits of pine-hid springs, | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Who hold, while the eyes of the world are asleep, | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| With the wind on the hills their gay revellings. | 11 | ··········· |
| Down on the marshlands with flicker and glow | 10 | ···/··/˘·· |
| Wanders Will-o'-the-Wisp through the night, | 9 | /˘······· |
| Seeking for witch-gold lost long ago | 9 | /˘·····˘/ |
| By the glimmer of goblin lantern-light. | 10 | ··/˘·/˘/˘· |
| The night is a sorceress, dusk-eyed and dear, | 11 | ····/˘˘···· |
| Akin to all eerie and elfin things, | 10 | ˘/··/˘·/˘· |
| Who weaves about us in meadow and mere | 10 | ······/··· |
| The spell of a hundred vanished Springs. | 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.