Sonnet (“Though Night hath climbed her peak of highest noon”)
Though Night hath climbed her peak of highest noon,And bitter blasts the screaming autumn whirl,All night through archways of the bridged pearlAnd portals of pure silver walks the moon.Wake on, my soul, nor crouch to agony,Turn cloud to light, and bitterness to joy,And dross to gold with glorious alchemy,Basing thy throne above the world’s annoy.Reign thou above the storms of sorrow and ruthThat roar beneath; unshaken peace hath won thee:So shalt thou pierce the woven glooms of truth;So shall the blessing of the meek be on thee;So in thine hour of dawn, the body’s youth,An honourable old shall come upon thee.
Words in this poem
- screaming a.
- Uttering screams; shrieking.
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- ruth n.
- Sorrow for the misery of another; pity; tenderness. [From Rue, v.: cf. Icel. hryggedh, hrygedh.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet (“Though Night hath climbed her peak of highest noon”) is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Project Gutenberg ebook #8601; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Tennyson, Sonnet (“Though Night hath climbed her peak of highest noon”), in The Early Poems (1830–1842), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8601, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-early-poems/sonnet-though-night-hath-climbed-her-peak-of-highest-noon.html, id L20771.
Form and metre
Sonnet (“Though Night hath climbed her peak of highest noon”) is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABBA-C-CDEDEDE noonA · whirlB · pearlB · moonA · agony · joyC · alchemy · annoyC · ruthD · theeE · truthD · theeE · youthD · theeE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Though Night hath climbed her peak of highest noon, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And bitter blasts the screaming autumn whirl, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| All night through archways of the bridged pearl | 10 | ···/····˘· |
| And portals of pure silver walks the moon. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Wake on, my soul, nor crouch to agony, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Turn cloud to light, and bitterness to joy, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| And dross to gold with glorious alchemy, | 11 | ·····/˘˘/˘˘ |
| Basing thy throne above the world’s annoy. | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Reign thou above the storms of sorrow and ruth | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| That roar beneath; unshaken peace hath won thee: | 11 | ····˘/˘···· |
| So shalt thou pierce the woven glooms of truth; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| So shall the blessing of the meek be on thee; | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| So in thine hour of dawn, the body’s youth, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| An honourable old shall come upon thee. | 11 | ··········· |
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.