Premonition
'Twas a year ago and the moon was bright(Oh, I remember so well, so well),I walked with my love in a sea of light,And the voice of my sweet was a silver bell.
And sudden the moon grew strangely dull,And sudden my love had taken wing;I looked on the face of a grinning skull,I strained to my heart a ghastly thing.
'Twas but fantasy, for my love lay stillIn my arms with her tender eyes aglow,And she wondered why my lips were chill,Why I was silent and kissed her so.
A year has gone and the moon is bright,A gibbous moon like a ghost of woe;I sit by a new-made grave to-night,And my heart is broken--it's strange, you know.
Words in this poem
- strangely adv.
- As something foreign, or not one's own; in a manner adapted to something foreign and strange.
- fantasy n.
- Fancy; imagination; especially, a whimsical or fanciful conception; a vagary of the imagination; whim; caprice; humor. [See Fancy.]
- aglow adv.
- In a glow; glowing; as, cheeks aglow; the landscape all aglow. [Pref. a- + glow.]
- wondered a.
- Having performed wonders; able to perform wonderful things.
- gibbous a.
- Swelling by a regular curve or surface; protuberant; convex; as, the moon is gibbous between the half-moon and the full moon. [Cf. F. gibbeux. See Gibbose.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Premonition is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of a Sourdough, Project Gutenberg ebook #25546; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert W. Service, Premonition, in Songs of a Sourdough (1907), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25546, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/service-sourdough/premonition.html, id L08130.
Form and metre
Premonition is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 12% 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 ABAB brightA · wellB · lightA · bellB
- 2 ABAB dullA · wingB · skullA · thingB
- 3 ABAB stillA · aglowB · chillA · soB
- 4 ABAB brightA · woeB · nightA · knowB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'Twas a year ago and the moon was bright | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| (Oh, I remember so well, so well), | 9 | ··˘/˘···· |
| I walked with my love in a sea of light, | 10 | ·········· |
| And the voice of my sweet was a silver bell. | 11 | ········/˘· |
| And sudden the moon grew strangely dull, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| And sudden my love had taken wing; | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| I looked on the face of a grinning skull, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I strained to my heart a ghastly thing. | 10 | ··˘····/˘· |
| 'Twas but fantasy, for my love lay still | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
| In my arms with her tender eyes aglow, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And she wondered why my lips were chill, | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
| Why I was silent and kissed her so. | 10 | ···/˘··˘·· |
| A year has gone and the moon is bright, | 9 | ········· |
| A gibbous moon like a ghost of woe; | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| I sit by a new-made grave to-night, | 9 | ········· |
| And my heart is broken--it's strange, you know. | 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.