Nightfall
We will never walk againAs we used to walk at night,Watching our shadows lengthenUnder the gold street-lightWhen the snow was new and white.
We will never walk againSlowly, we two,In spring when the park is sweetWith midnight and with dew,And the passers-by are few.
I sit and think of it all,And the blue June twilight dies,--Down in the clanging squareA street-piano criesAnd stars come out in the skies.
About this text
Nightfall is in the public domain. This text is taken from Flame and Shadow, Project Gutenberg ebook #591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sara Teasdale, Nightfall, in Flame and Shadow (1920), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/teasdale-flame-shadow/nightfall.html, id L20797.
Form and metre
Nightfall is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 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 ABABB againA · nightB · lengthenA · lightB · whiteB
- 2 -A-AA again · twoA · sweet · dewA · fewA
- 3 -A-AA all · diesA · square · criesA · skiesA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We will never walk again | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| As we used to walk at night, | 7 | ······· |
| Watching our shadows lengthen | 8 | /˘/˘/·/˘ |
| Under the gold street-light | 6 | ······ |
| When the snow was new and white. | 7 | ······· |
| We will never walk again | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Slowly, we two, | 4 | /˘·· |
| In spring when the park is sweet | 7 | ······· |
| With midnight and with dew, | 6 | ·/···· |
| And the passers-by are few. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I sit and think of it all, | 7 | ······· |
| And the blue June twilight dies,-- | 7 | ····/·· |
| Down in the clanging square | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A street-piano cries | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| And stars come out in the skies. | 7 | ······· |
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.