Twilight Night I
We met, hand to hand,We clasped hands close and fast,As close as oak and ivy stand;But it is past:Come day, come night, day comes at last.
We loosed hand from hand,We parted face from face;Each went his way to his own land.At his own pace,Each went to fill his separate place.
If we should meet one day,If both should not forget,We shall clasp hands the accustomed way,As when we metSo long ago, as I remember yet.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Twilight Night I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #16950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Christina Rossetti, Twilight Night I, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/twilight-night-i.html, id L04369.
Form and metre
Twilight Night I is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABB handA · fastB · standA · pastB · lastB
- 2 ABABB handA · faceB · landA · paceB · placeB
- 3 ABABB dayA · forgetB · wayA · metB · yetB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We met, hand to hand, | 5 | ····· |
| We clasped hands close and fast, | 7 | ··˘···· |
| As close as oak and ivy stand; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But it is past: | 4 | ···· |
| Come day, come night, day comes at last. | 8 | ········ |
| We loosed hand from hand, | 5 | ····· |
| We parted face from face; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Each went his way to his own land. | 8 | ········ |
| At his own pace, | 4 | ···· |
| Each went to fill his separate place. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| If we should meet one day, | 6 | ······ |
| If both should not forget, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| We shall clasp hands the accustomed way, | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| As when we met | 4 | ···· |
| So long ago, as I remember yet. | 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.