Night
In the night, in the night,When thou liest alone,Ah, the sounds that are blownIn the freaks of the breeze,By the spirit that sendsThe voice of far friendsWith the sigh of the seasIn the night!
In the night, in the night,When thou liest alone,Ah, the ghosts that make moanFrom the days that are sped:The old dreams, the old deeds,The old wound that still bleeds,And the face of the deadIn the night!
In the night, in the night,When thou liest alone,With the grass and the stoneO'er thy chamber so deep,Ah, the silence at last,Life's dissonance past,And only pure sleepIn the night!
Words in this poem
- dissonance n.
- A mingling of discordant sounds; an inharmonious combination of sounds; discord. [L. dissonantia: cf. F. dissonance.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, Night, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/night.html, id L11345.
Form and metre
Night is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBCDDCA. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.4 syllables. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic dimeter.
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 ABBCDDCA nightA · aloneB · blownB · breezeC · sendsD · friendsD · seasC · nightA
- 2 ABBCDDCA nightA · aloneB · moanB · spedC · deedsD · bleedsD · deadC · nightA
- 3 ABBCDDCA nightA · aloneB · stoneB · deepC · lastD · pastD · sleepC · nightA
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 anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In the night, in the night, | 6 | ······ |
| When thou liest alone, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Ah, the sounds that are blown | 6 | ······ |
| In the freaks of the breeze, | 6 | ······ |
| By the spirit that sends | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| The voice of far friends | 5 | ····· |
| With the sigh of the seas | 6 | ······ |
| In the night! | 3 | ··· |
| In the night, in the night, | 6 | ······ |
| When thou liest alone, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Ah, the ghosts that make moan | 6 | ······ |
| From the days that are sped: | 6 | ······ |
| The old dreams, the old deeds, | 6 | ······ |
| The old wound that still bleeds, | 6 | ······ |
| And the face of the dead | 6 | ······ |
| In the night! | 3 | ··· |
| In the night, in the night, | 6 | ······ |
| When thou liest alone, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| With the grass and the stone | 6 | ······ |
| O'er thy chamber so deep, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Ah, the silence at last, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Life's dissonance past, | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| And only pure sleep | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| In the night! | 3 | ··· |
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.