Night
O holy night!I wander with my loveThro' garden and thro' grove,In love's delight.Around, all still,But sharp and shrillThe bells are heard from far;On heaven's blue floor,Are shining o'er,One moon and many a star.
'Tis not my lotTo be a star in heaven, nor would I beRemoved from thee,For life would not be life where thou wert not.The light of Eden,Thou absent, maiden!Would soon in darkness close;And I should fly,Down from the sky,To dwell with thee, sweet mundane rose.
Words in this poem
- eden n.
- The garden where Adam and Eve first dwelt; hence, a delightful region or residence. [Heb. eden delight, pleasure; also, a place of pleasure, Eden.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- mundane a.
- Of or pertaining to the world; worldly; earthly; terrestrial; as, the mundane sphere. [L. mundanus, fr. mundus the world, an implement, toilet adornments, or dress; cf. mundus, a., clean, neat, Skr. mansds to adorn, dress, mansdsa adornment. Cf. M]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet, by Sir John Bowring (London: Trübner & Co., 1866), Internet Archive, the John Bowring 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: Sándor Petőfi, Night, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/night.html, id L29788.
Form and metre
Night is 20 lines in 2 stanzas of 10 lines each. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 A--ABBC--C nightA · love · grove · delightA · stillB · shrillB · farC · floor · o'er · starC
- 2 ABBA--CDDC lotA · beB · theeB · notA · eden · maiden · closeC · flyD · skyD · roseC
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O holy night! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| I wander with my love | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Thro' garden and thro' grove, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| In love's delight. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Around, all still, | 4 | ···· |
| But sharp and shrill | 4 | ···· |
| The bells are heard from far; | 6 | ······ |
| On heaven's blue floor, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Are shining o'er, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| One moon and many a star. | 6 | ···/·· |
| 'Tis not my lot | 4 | ···· |
| To be a star in heaven, nor would I be | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Removed from thee, | 4 | ˘/·· |
| For life would not be life where thou wert not. | 10 | ·········· |
| The light of Eden, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Thou absent, maiden! | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Would soon in darkness close; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And I should fly, | 4 | ···· |
| Down from the sky, | 4 | ···· |
| To dwell with thee, sweet mundane rose. | 8 | ·····˘/· |
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.