When the Dark Comes Down
When the dark comes down, oh, the wind is on the seaWith lisping laugh and whimper to the red reef's threnody,The boats are sailing homeward now across the harbor barWith many a jest and many a shout from fishing grounds afar.So furl your sails and take your rest, ye fisher folk so brown,For task and quest are ended when the dark comes down.
When the dark comes down, oh, the landward valleys fillLike brimming cups of purple, and on every landward hillThere shines a star of twilight that is watching evermoreThe low, dim lighted meadows by the long, dim-lighted shore,For there, where vagrant daisies weave the grass a silver crown,The lads and lassies wander when the dark comes down.
When the dark comes down, oh, the children fall asleep,And mothers in the fisher huts their happy vigils keep;There's music in the song they sing and music on the sea,The loving, lingering echoes of the twilight's litany,For toil has folded hands to dream, and care has ceased to frown,And every wave's a lyric when the dark comes down.
Words in this poem
- whimper v. i.
- To cry with a low, whining, broken voice; to whine; to complain; as, a child whimpers. [Cf. Scot. whimmer, G. wimmern.]
- threnody n.
- A song of lamentation; a threnode. Sir T. Herbert. [Gr. Threne, and Ode.]
- homeward a.
- Being in the direction of home; as, the homeward way.
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- furl v. t.
- To draw up or gather into close compass; to wrap or roll, as a sail, close to the yard, stay, or mast, or, as a flag, close to or around its staff, securing it there by a gasket or line. Totten. [Contr. fr. furdle, fr. fardel bundle: cf. F. ferler to furl, OF. fardeler to pack. See Furdle, Fardel, and cf. Farl.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- landward adv.
- Toward the land.
- brimming a.
- Full to the brim; overflowing.
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
When the Dark Comes Down 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, When the Dark Comes Down, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/when-the-dark-comes-down.html, id L29361.
Form and metre
When the Dark Comes Down is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 78% of the lines. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 --AABB sea · threnody · barA · afarA · brownB · downB
- 2 AABBCC fillA · hillA · evermoreB · shoreB · crownC · downC
- 3 AA--BB asleepA · keepA · sea · litany · frownB · downB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When the dark comes down, oh, the wind is on the sea | 12 | ············ |
| With lisping laugh and whimper to the red reef's threnody, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘····/˘˘ |
| The boats are sailing homeward now across the harbor bar | 14 | ···/˘/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| With many a jest and many a shout from fishing grounds afar. | 14 | ·/···/···/˘·˘/ |
| So furl your sails and take your rest, ye fisher folk so brown, | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| For task and quest are ended when the dark comes down. | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| When the dark comes down, oh, the landward valleys fill | 12 | ·······/˘/˘· |
| Like brimming cups of purple, and on every landward hill | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘/˘· |
| There shines a star of twilight that is watching evermore | 14 | ·····/···/˘/˘· |
| The low, dim lighted meadows by the long, dim-lighted shore, | 14 | ···/˘/·····/˘· |
| For there, where vagrant daisies weave the grass a silver crown, | 14 | ···/˘/˘····/˘· |
| The lads and lassies wander when the dark comes down. | 12 | ···/˘/˘····· |
| When the dark comes down, oh, the children fall asleep, | 12 | ·······/˘·˘/ |
| And mothers in the fisher huts their happy vigils keep; | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘/˘· |
| There's music in the song they sing and music on the sea, | 14 | ·/˘······/˘··· |
| The loving, lingering echoes of the twilight's litany, | 15 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘··/·/˘˘ |
| For toil has folded hands to dream, and care has ceased to frown, | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| And every wave's a lyric when the dark comes down. | 13 | ·/˘˘··/˘····· |
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.