The time draws near the birth of Christ
The time draws near the birth of Christ:The moon is hid; the night is still;The Christmas bells from hill to hillAnswer each other in the mist.
Four voices of four hamlets round,From far and near, on mead and moor,Swell out and fail, as if a doorWere shut between me and the sound:
Each voice four changes on the wind,That now dilate, and now decrease,Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.
This year I slept and woke with pain,I almost wish’d no more to wake,And that my hold on life would breakBefore I heard those bells again:
But they my troubled spirit rule,For they controll’d me when a boy;They bring me sorrow touch’d with joy,The merry merry bells of Yule.
Words in this poem
- yule n.
- Christmas or Christmastide; the feast of the Nativity of our Savior. [OE. yol, ýol, AS. geól; akin to geóla December or January, Icel. jol Yule, Ylir the name of a winter month, Sw. jul Christmas, Dan. juul, Goth. jiuleis November]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The time draws near the birth of Christ is in the public domain. This text is taken from In memoriam, Project Gutenberg ebook #70950; 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, The time draws near the birth of Christ, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-28.html, id L18388.
Form and metre
The time draws near the birth of Christ is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 15% 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 ABBA christA · stillB · hillB · mistA
- 2 ABBA roundA · moorB · doorB · soundA
- 3 ABBA windA · decreaseB · peaceB · mankindA
- 4 ABBA painA · wakeB · breakB · againA
- 5 ABBA ruleA · boyB · joyB · yuleA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The time draws near the birth of Christ: | 8 | ········ |
| The moon is hid; the night is still; | 8 | ········ |
| The Christmas bells from hill to hill | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Answer each other in the mist. | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Four voices of four hamlets round, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| From far and near, on mead and moor, | 8 | ········ |
| Swell out and fail, as if a door | 8 | ········ |
| Were shut between me and the sound: | 8 | ········ |
| Each voice four changes on the wind, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That now dilate, and now decrease, | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace, | 8 | ··////·· |
| Peace and goodwill, to all mankind. | 8 | ··//··// |
| This year I slept and woke with pain, | 8 | ········ |
| I almost wish’d no more to wake, | 8 | ·/······ |
| And that my hold on life would break | 8 | ········ |
| Before I heard those bells again: | 8 | ······˘/ |
| But they my troubled spirit rule, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| For they controll’d me when a boy; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| They bring me sorrow touch’d with joy, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The merry merry bells of Yule. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
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.