Lights Out
"Lights out" along the land,"Lights out" upon the sea.The night must put her hiding handO'er peaceful towns where children sleep,And peaceful ships that darkly creepAcross the waves, as if they were not free.
The dragons of the air,The hell-hounds of the deep,Lurking and prowling everywhere,Go forth to seek their helpless prey,Not knowing whom they maim or slay--Mad harvesters, who care not what they reap.
Out with the tranquil lights,Out with the lights that burnFor love and law and human rights!Set back the clock a thousand years:All they have gained now disappears,And the dark ages suddenly return.
Kaiser, who loosed wild death,And terror in the night,God grant you draw no quiet breath,Until the madness you beganIs ended, and long-suffering man,Set free from war lords, cries, "Let there be Light."
Words in this poem
- prowling a.
- Accustomed to prowl, or engaged in roving stealthily, as for prey.
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
- kaiser n.
- The ancient title of emperors of Germany assumed by King William of Prussia when crowned sovereign of the new German empire in 1871. [Gr., fr. L. Caesar. Cf. Kesar, and Czar.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lights Out is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, Lights Out, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/lights-out.html, id L22928.
Form and metre
Lights Out is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABACCB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABACCB landA · seaB · handA · sleepC · creepC · freeB
- 2 ABACCB airA · deepB · everywhereA · preyC · slayC · reapB
- 3 ABACCB lightsA · burnB · rightsA · yearsC · disappearsC · returnB
- 4 ABACCB deathA · nightB · breathA · beganC · manC · lightB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| "Lights out" along the land, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| "Lights out" upon the sea. | 6 | ······ |
| The night must put her hiding hand | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O'er peaceful towns where children sleep, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And peaceful ships that darkly creep | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Across the waves, as if they were not free. | 10 | ˘/········ |
| The dragons of the air, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The hell-hounds of the deep, | 6 | ······ |
| Lurking and prowling everywhere, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| Go forth to seek their helpless prey, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Not knowing whom they maim or slay-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Mad harvesters, who care not what they reap. | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Out with the tranquil lights, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Out with the lights that burn | 6 | ······ |
| For love and law and human rights! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Set back the clock a thousand years: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| All they have gained now disappears, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And the dark ages suddenly return. | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Kaiser, who loosed wild death, | 6 | /˘···· |
| And terror in the night, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| God grant you draw no quiet breath, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Until the madness you began | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Is ended, and long-suffering man, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| Set free from war lords, cries, "Let there be Light." | 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.