Thirty Sonnets: Sonnet I
Down the strait vistas where a city streetFades in pale dust and vaporous distances,Stained with far fumes the light grows less and lessAnd the sky reddens round the day's retreat.Now out of orient chambers, cool and sweet,Like Nature's pure lustration, Dusk comes down.Now the lamps brighten and the quickening townRings with the trample of returning feet.And Pleasure, risen from her own warm mouldSunk all the drowsy and unloved daylightIn layers of odorous softness, Paphian girlsCover with gauze, with satin, and with pearls,Crown, and about her spangly vestments foldThe ermine of the empire of the Night.
Words in this poem
- lustration n.
- The act of lustrating or purifying. [L. lustratio: cf. F. lustration.]
- brighten v. t.
- To make bright or brighter; to make to shine; to increase the luster of; to give a brighter hue to.
- quickening n.
- The act or process of making or of becoming quick.
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- 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.
- paphian a.
- Of or pertaining to Paphos, an ancient city of Cyprus, having a celebrated temple of Venus; hence, pertaining to Venus, or her rites.
- spangly a.
- Resembling, or consisting of, spangles; glittering; as, spangly light.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Thirty Sonnets: Sonnet I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #617; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alan Seeger, Thirty Sonnets: Sonnet I, in Poems (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #617, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/seeger-poems/thirty-sonnets-sonnet-i.html, id L12934.
Form and metre
Thirty Sonnets: Sonnet I is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 A--AABBACDEECD streetA · distances · less · retreatA · sweetA · downB · townB · feetA · mouldC · daylightD · girlsE · pearlsE · foldC · nightD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Down the strait vistas where a city street | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Fades in pale dust and vaporous distances, | 11 | ·····/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Stained with far fumes the light grows less and less | 10 | ·········· |
| And the sky reddens round the day's retreat. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Now out of orient chambers, cool and sweet, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘··· |
| Like Nature's pure lustration, Dusk comes down. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Now the lamps brighten and the quickening town | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Rings with the trample of returning feet. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| And Pleasure, risen from her own warm mould | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Sunk all the drowsy and unloved daylight | 10 | ···/˘·˘//· |
| In layers of odorous softness, Paphian girls | 12 | ·/˘·/˘/˘/˘˘· |
| Cover with gauze, with satin, and with pearls, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Crown, and about her spangly vestments fold | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The ermine of the empire of the Night. | 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.