The Light of Other Days
Oft in the stilly nightEre slumber’s chain has bound me,Fond Memory brings the lightOf other days around me:The smiles, the tearsOf boyhood’s years,The words of love then spoken;The eyes that shone,Now dimmed and gone,The cheerful hearts now broken!Thus in the stilly nightEre slumber’s chain has bound me,Sad Memory brings the lightOf other days around me.
When I remember allThe friends so link’d togetherI’ve seen around me fallLike leaves in wintry weather,I feel like oneWho treads aloneSome banquet-hall deserted,Whose lights are fled,Whose garlands dead,And all but he departed!Thus in the stilly nightEre slumber’s chain has bound me,Sad Memory brings the lightOf other days around me.
Words in this poem
- stilly a.
- Still; quiet; calm.
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Light of Other Days is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, The Light of Other Days, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/the-light-of-other-days.html, id L25299.
Form and metre
The Light of Other Days is 28 lines in 2 stanzas of 14 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCCDDDDABAB nightA · meB · lightA · meB · tearsC · yearsC · spokenD · shoneD · goneD · brokenD · nightA · meB · lightA · meB
- 2 ABAB--CCCCDEDE allA · togetherB · fallA · weatherB · one · alone · desertedC · fledC · deadC · departedC · nightD · meE · lightD · meE
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oft in the stilly night | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ere slumber’s chain has bound me, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Fond Memory brings the light | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Of other days around me: | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The smiles, the tears | 4 | ···· |
| Of boyhood’s years, | 4 | ·/·· |
| The words of love then spoken; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The eyes that shone, | 4 | ···· |
| Now dimmed and gone, | 4 | ···· |
| The cheerful hearts now broken! | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Thus in the stilly night | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ere slumber’s chain has bound me, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Sad Memory brings the light | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Of other days around me. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| When I remember all | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| The friends so link’d together | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| I’ve seen around me fall | 6 | ······ |
| Like leaves in wintry weather, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| I feel like one | 4 | ···· |
| Who treads alone | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Some banquet-hall deserted, | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Whose lights are fled, | 4 | ···· |
| Whose garlands dead, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And all but he departed! | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Thus in the stilly night | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ere slumber’s chain has bound me, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Sad Memory brings the light | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Of other days around me. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
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.