Written at Midnight
While thro’ the broken pane the tempest sighs,And my step falters on the faithless floor,Shades of departed joys around me rise,With many a face that smiles on me no more;With many a voice that thrills of transport gave,Now silent as the grass that tufts their grave!
Words in this poem
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Written at Midnight is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #13586; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Rogers, Written at Midnight, in Poems (1792–1834), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13586, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rogers-poems/written-at-midnight.html, id L09731.
Form and metre
Written at Midnight is 6 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables.
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 ABABCC sighsA · floorB · riseA · moreB · gaveC · graveC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| While thro’ the broken pane the tempest sighs, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And my step falters on the faithless floor, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Shades of departed joys around me rise, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| With many a face that smiles on me no more; | 10 | ·/········ |
| With many a voice that thrills of transport gave, | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| Now silent as the grass that tufts their grave! | 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.