The Twilight of Earth
The wonder of the world is o'er:The magic from the sea is gone:There is no unimagined shore,No islet yet to venture on.The Sacred Hazels' blooms are shed,The Nuts of Knowledge harvested.
Oh, what is worth this lore of ageIf time shall never bring us backOur battle with the gods to wageReeling along the starry track.The battle rapture here goes byIn warring upon things that die.
Let be the tale of him whose loveWas sighed between white Deirdre's breasts,It will not lift the heart aboveThe sodden clay on which it rests.Love once had power the gods to bringAll rapt on its wild wandering.
We shiver in the falling dew,And seek a shelter from the storm:When man these elder brothers knewHe found the mother nature warm,A hearth fire blazing through it all,A home without a circling wall.
We dwindle down beneath the skies,And from ourselves we pass away:The paradise of memoriesGrows ever fainter day by day.The shepherd stars have shrunk within,The world's great night will soon begin.
Will no one, ere it is too late,Ere fades the last memorial gleam,Recall for us our earlier state?For nothing but so vast a dreamThat it would scale the steeps of airCould rouse us from so vast despair.
The power is ours to make or marOur fate as on the earliest morn,The Darkness and the Radiance areCreatures within the spirit born.Yet, bathed in gloom too long, we mightForget how we imagined light.
Not yet are fixed the prison bars;The hidden light the spirit ownsIf blown to flame would dim the starsAnd they who rule them from their thrones:And the proud sceptred spirits thenceWould bow to pay us reverence.
Oh, while the glory sinks withinLet us not wait on earth behind,But follow where it flies, and winThe glow again, and we may findBeyond the Gateways of the DayDominion and ancestral sway.
Words in this poem
- islet n.
- A little island. [OF. islette (cf. F. îlot), dim. of isle.]
- 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,]
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- dwindle v. i.
- To diminish; to become less; to shrink; to waste or consume away; to become degenerate; to fall away. [From OE. dwinen to languish, waste away, AS. dwinan; akin to LG. dwinen, D. dwijnen to vanish, Icel. dvina to cease, dwindle, Sw. tvina; of uncertain origin. Th]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Twilight of Earth 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, The Twilight of Earth, in The Divine Vision and Other Poems (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36913, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/russell-divine-vision/the-twilight-of-earth.html, id L11528.
Form and metre
The Twilight of Earth is 54 lines in 9 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 8 of its 9 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 39% 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 -A-ABB o'er · goneA · shore · onA · shedB · harvestedB
- 2 ABABCC ageA · backB · wageA · trackB · byC · dieC
- 3 ABABCC loveA · breastsB · aboveA · restsB · bringC · wanderingC
- 4 ABABCC dewA · stormB · knewA · warmB · allC · wallC
- 5 ABABCC skiesA · awayB · memoriesA · dayB · withinC · beginC
- 6 ABABCC lateA · gleamB · stateA · dreamB · airC · despairC
- 7 ABABCC marA · mornB · areA · bornB · mightC · lightC
- 8 ABABCC barsA · ownsB · starsA · thronesB · thenceC · reverenceC
- 9 ABABCC withinA · behindB · winA · findB · dayC · swayC
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 wonder of the world is o'er: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The magic from the sea is gone: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| There is no unimagined shore, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| No islet yet to venture on. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The Sacred Hazels' blooms are shed, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The Nuts of Knowledge harvested. | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Oh, what is worth this lore of age | 8 | ········ |
| If time shall never bring us back | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Our battle with the gods to wage | 8 | //˘····· |
| Reeling along the starry track. | 8 | /˘˘/·/˘· |
| The battle rapture here goes by | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| In warring upon things that die. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Let be the tale of him whose love | 8 | ········ |
| Was sighed between white Deirdre's breasts, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| It will not lift the heart above | 8 | ········ |
| The sodden clay on which it rests. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Love once had power the gods to bring | 8 | ···/···· |
| All rapt on its wild wandering. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| We shiver in the falling dew, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And seek a shelter from the storm: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| When man these elder brothers knew | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| He found the mother nature warm, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| A hearth fire blazing through it all, | 8 | ··//˘··· |
| A home without a circling wall. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| We dwindle down beneath the skies, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And from ourselves we pass away: | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| The paradise of memories | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Grows ever fainter day by day. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The shepherd stars have shrunk within, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The world's great night will soon begin. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Will no one, ere it is too late, | 8 | ········ |
| Ere fades the last memorial gleam, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Recall for us our earlier state? | 8 | ˘/··//˘· |
| For nothing but so vast a dream | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That it would scale the steeps of air | 8 | ········ |
| Could rouse us from so vast despair. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The power is ours to make or mar | 8 | ·/·/···· |
| Our fate as on the earliest morn, | 8 | /····/˘· |
| The Darkness and the Radiance are | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Creatures within the spirit born. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Yet, bathed in gloom too long, we might | 8 | ········ |
| Forget how we imagined light. | 8 | ˘/··˘/˘· |
| Not yet are fixed the prison bars; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The hidden light the spirit owns | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| If blown to flame would dim the stars | 8 | ········ |
| And they who rule them from their thrones: | 8 | ········ |
| And the proud sceptred spirits thence | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Would bow to pay us reverence. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Oh, while the glory sinks within | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Let us not wait on earth behind, | 8 | ········ |
| But follow where it flies, and win | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The glow again, and we may find | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Beyond the Gateways of the Day | 8 | ···/···· |
| Dominion and ancestral sway. | 8 | ˘/˘·˘/˘· |
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.