Evening Hymn
The shadows of the evening hoursFall from the darkening sky;Upon the fragrance of the flowersThe dews of evening lie:Before Thy throne, O Lord of Heaven,We kneel at close of day;Look on Thy children from on high,And hear us while we pray.
The sorrows of Thy Servants, Lord,Oh, do not Thou despise;But let the incense of our prayersBefore Thy mercy rise;The brightness of the coming nightUpon the darkness rolls:With hopes of future glory chaseThe shadows on our souls.
Slowly the rays of daylight fade;So fade within our heart,The hopes in earthly love and joy,That one by one depart:Slowly the bright stars, one by one,Within the Heavens shine;--Give us, Oh, Lord, fresh hopes in Heaven,And trust in things divine.
Let peace, Oh Lord, Thy peace, Oh God,Upon our souls descend;From midnight fears and perils, ThouOur trembling hearts defend;Give us a respite from our toil,Calm and subdue our woes;Through the long day we suffer, Lord,Oh, give us now repose!
Words in this poem
- kneel v. i.
- To bend the knee; to fall or rest on the knees; -- sometimes with down. [OE. knelen, cneolien; akin to D. knielen, Dan. knæle. See Knee.]
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Evening Hymn is in the public domain. This text is taken from Legends and Lyrics. Part 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #2304; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Adelaide Anne Procter, Evening Hymn, in Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2304, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/procter-legends-lyrics/evening-hymn.html, id L21808.
Form and metre
Evening Hymn is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABAB-CBC hoursA · skyB · flowersA · lieB · heaven · dayC · highB · prayC
- 2 -A-A-B-B lord · despiseA · prayers · riseA · night · rollsB · chase · soulsB
- 3 -A-ABCBC fade · heartA · joy · departA · oneB · shineC · heavenB · divineC
- 4 -A-A-B-B god · descendA · thou · defendA · toil · woesB · lord · reposeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The shadows of the evening hours | 9 | ·/···/˘/˘ |
| Fall from the darkening sky; | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Upon the fragrance of the flowers | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| The dews of evening lie: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Before Thy throne, O Lord of Heaven, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| We kneel at close of day; | 6 | ······ |
| Look on Thy children from on high, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And hear us while we pray. | 6 | ······ |
| The sorrows of Thy Servants, Lord, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Oh, do not Thou despise; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| But let the incense of our prayers | 8 | ···˘/·/· |
| Before Thy mercy rise; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The brightness of the coming night | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Upon the darkness rolls: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With hopes of future glory chase | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The shadows on our souls. | 7 | ·/··/˘· |
| Slowly the rays of daylight fade; | 8 | /˘···/·· |
| So fade within our heart, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The hopes in earthly love and joy, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That one by one depart: | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Slowly the bright stars, one by one, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Within the Heavens shine;-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Give us, Oh, Lord, fresh hopes in Heaven, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And trust in things divine. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Let peace, Oh Lord, Thy peace, Oh God, | 8 | ········ |
| Upon our souls descend; | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| From midnight fears and perils, Thou | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Our trembling hearts defend; | 8 | /˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| Give us a respite from our toil, | 8 | ···/˘·/· |
| Calm and subdue our woes; | 7 | ··˘//˘· |
| Through the long day we suffer, Lord, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Oh, give us now repose! | 6 | ····˘/ |
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