Another Version of the Preceding
Night, with all thine eyes look down!Darkness shed its holiest dew!When ever smiled the inconstant moonOn a pair so true?Hence, coy hour! and quench thy light,Lest eyes see their own delight!Hence, swift hour! and thy loved flightOft renew.
BOYS:O joy! O fear! what may be doneIn the absence of the sun?Come along!The golden gates of sleep unbar!When strength and beauty meet together,Kindles their image like a starIn a sea of glassy weather.Hence, coy hour! and quench thy light,Lest eyes see their own delight!Hence, swift hour! and thy loved flightOft renew.
GIRLS:O joy! O fear! what may be doneIn the absence of the sun?Come along!Fairies! sprites! and angels, keep her!Holiest powers, permit no wrong!And return, to wake the sleeper,Dawn, ere it be long.Hence, swift hour! and quench thy light,Lest eyes see their own delight!Hence, coy hour! and thy loved flightOft renew.
O joy! O fear! what will be doneIn the absence of the sun?Come along!
Words in this poem
- unbar v. t.
- To remove a bar or bars from; to unbolt; to open; as, to unbar a gate. Heber. [1st pref. un- + bar.]
- sleeper n.
- One who sleeps; a slumberer; hence, a drone, or lazy person.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Another Version of the Preceding is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #4798; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Another Version of the Preceding, in Ode to the West Wind, and Other Poems (1816–1819), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4798, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/shelley-later-poems/another-version-of-the-preceding.html, id L16451.
Form and metre
Another Version of the Preceding is 35 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 23% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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-ABBBA down · dewA · moon · trueA · lightB · delightB · flightB · renewA
- 2 -AA--B-BCCC- boys · doneA · sunA · along · unbar · togetherB · star · weatherB · lightC · delightC · flightC · renew
- 3 -AAB-B-BCCC- girls · doneA · sunA · alongB · her · wrongB · sleeper · longB · lightC · delightC · flightC · renew
- 4 AA- doneA · sunA · along
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Night, with all thine eyes look down! | 7 | ······· |
| Darkness shed its holiest dew! | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| When ever smiled the inconstant moon | 8 | ·/··˘/˘· |
| On a pair so true? | 5 | ····· |
| Hence, coy hour! and quench thy light, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Lest eyes see their own delight! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Hence, swift hour! and thy loved flight | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Oft renew. | 3 | ·˘/ |
| BOYS: | 1 | · |
| O joy! O fear! what may be done | 8 | ········ |
| In the absence of the sun? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Come along! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| The golden gates of sleep unbar! | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| When strength and beauty meet together, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| Kindles their image like a star | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| In a sea of glassy weather. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Hence, coy hour! and quench thy light, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Lest eyes see their own delight! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Hence, swift hour! and thy loved flight | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Oft renew. | 3 | ·˘/ |
| GIRLS: | 1 | · |
| O joy! O fear! what may be done | 8 | ········ |
| In the absence of the sun? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Come along! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Fairies! sprites! and angels, keep her! | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
| Holiest powers, permit no wrong! | 8 | /˘˘/˘/·· |
| And return, to wake the sleeper, | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| Dawn, ere it be long. | 5 | ····· |
| Hence, swift hour! and quench thy light, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Lest eyes see their own delight! | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Hence, coy hour! and thy loved flight | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Oft renew. | 3 | ·˘/ |
| O joy! O fear! what will be done | 8 | ········ |
| In the absence of the sun? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Come along! | 3 | ·˘/ |
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.