Night
Burning our hearts out with longingThe daylight passed:Millions and millions together,The stars at last!
Purple the woods where the dewdrops,Pearly and grey,Wash in the cool from our facesThe flame of day.
Glory and shadow grow one inThe hazel wood:Laughter and peace in the stillnessTogether brood.
Hopes all unearthly are throngingIn hearts of earth:Tongues of the starlight are callingOur souls to birth.
Down from the heaven its secretsDrop one by one;Where time is for ever beginningAnd time is done.
There light eternal is overChaos and night:Singing with dawn lips for ever,"Let there be light!"
There too for ever in twilightTime slips away,Closing in darkness and raptureIts awful day.
Words in this poem
- 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.
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- unearthly a.
- Not terrestrial; supernatural; preternatural; hence, weird; appalling; terrific; as, an unearthly sight or sound.
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
- chaos n.
- An empty, immeasurable space; a yawning chasm. [L. chaos chaos (in senses 1 & 2), Gr. Chasm.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Divine Vision, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #36913; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George William Russell, Night, in The Divine Vision and Other Poems (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36913, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/russell-divine-vision/night.html, id L11529.
Form and metre
Night is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 39% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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-A longing · passedA · together · lastA
- 2 -A-A dewdrops · greyA · faces · dayA
- 4 -A-A thronging · earthA · calling · birthA
- 5 -A-A secrets · oneA · beginning · doneA
- 6 -A-A over · nightA · ever · lightA
- 7 -A-A twilight · awayA · rapture · dayA
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Burning our hearts out with longing | 9 | /˘/˘···/˘ |
| The daylight passed: | 4 | ·/·· |
| Millions and millions together, | 8 | /˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| The stars at last! | 4 | ···· |
| Purple the woods where the dewdrops, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Pearly and grey, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Wash in the cool from our faces | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| The flame of day. | 4 | ···· |
| Glory and shadow grow one in | 8 | /˘·/···· |
| The hazel wood: | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Laughter and peace in the stillness | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Together brood. | 4 | ˘/˘· |
| Hopes all unearthly are thronging | 8 | ··˘/˘·/˘ |
| In hearts of earth: | 4 | ···· |
| Tongues of the starlight are calling | 8 | ···/··/˘ |
| Our souls to birth. | 5 | /˘··· |
| Down from the heaven its secrets | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Drop one by one; | 4 | ···· |
| Where time is for ever beginning | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| And time is done. | 4 | ···· |
| There light eternal is over | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Chaos and night: | 4 | /˘·· |
| Singing with dawn lips for ever, | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| "Let there be light!" | 4 | ···· |
| There too for ever in twilight | 8 | ···/˘·/· |
| Time slips away, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Closing in darkness and rapture | 8 | /˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Its awful day. | 4 | ·/˘· |
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.