Starlight
Last night I lay in an open fieldAnd looked at the stars with lips sealed;No noise moved the windless air,And I looked at the stars with steady stare.
There were some that glittered and some that shoneWith a soft and equal glow, and oneThat queened it over the sprinkled round,Swaying the host with silent sound.
"Calm things," I thought, "in your cavern blue,I will learn and hold and master you;I will yoke and scorn you as I can,For the pride of my heart is the pride of a man."
Grass to my cheek in the dewy field,I lay quite still with lips sealed,And the pride of a man and his rigid gazeStalked like swords on heaven's ways.
But through a sudden gate there stoleThe Universe and spread in my soul;Quick went my breath and quick my heart,And I looked at the stars with lips apart.
Words in this poem
- windless a.
- Having no wind; calm.
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Starlight is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems - First Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #37860; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Collings Squire, Starlight, in Poems: First Series (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37860, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/squire-poems/starlight.html, id L23166.
Form and metre
Starlight is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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 AABB fieldA · sealedA · airB · stareB
- 2 --AA shone · one · roundA · soundA
- 3 AABB blueA · youA · canB · manB
- 4 AABB fieldA · sealedA · gazeB · waysB
- 5 AABB stoleA · soulA · heartB · apartB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Last night I lay in an open field | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And looked at the stars with lips sealed; | 8 | ········ |
| No noise moved the windless air, | 8 | ···˘·/˘· |
| And I looked at the stars with steady stare. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| There were some that glittered and some that shone | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| With a soft and equal glow, and one | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| That queened it over the sprinkled round, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Swaying the host with silent sound. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| "Calm things," I thought, "in your cavern blue, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| I will learn and hold and master you; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| I will yoke and scorn you as I can, | 9 | ········· |
| For the pride of my heart is the pride of a man." | 12 | ············ |
| Grass to my cheek in the dewy field, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| I lay quite still with lips sealed, | 8 | ·······˘ |
| And the pride of a man and his rigid gaze | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Stalked like swords on heaven's ways. | 8 | ·˘···/˘· |
| But through a sudden gate there stole | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The Universe and spread in my soul; | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Quick went my breath and quick my heart, | 8 | ········ |
| And I looked at the stars with lips apart. | 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.