On the Beach at Night
On the beach at night,Stands a child with her father,Watching the east, the autumn sky.
Up through the darkness,While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading,Lower sullen and fast athwart and down the sky,Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east,Ascends large and calm the lord-star Jupiter,And nigh at hand, only a very little above,Swim the delicate sisters the Pleiades.
From the beach the child holding the hand of her father,Those burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all,Watching, silently weeps.
Weep not, child,Weep not, my darling,With these kisses let me remove your tears,The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious,They shall not long possess the sky, they devour the stars only inapparition,Jupiter shall emerge, be patient, watch again another night, thePleiades shall emerge,They are immortal, all those stars both silvery and golden shallshine out again,The great stars and the little ones shall shine out again, they endure,The vast immortal suns and the long-enduring pensive moons shallagain shine.
Then dearest child mournest thou only for jupiter?Considerest thou alone the burial of the stars?
Something there is,(With my lips soothing thee, adding I whisper,I give thee the first suggestion, the problem and indirection,)Something there is more immortal even than the stars,(Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,)Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous JupiterLonger than sun or any revolving satellite,Or the radiant sisters the Pleiades.
Words in this poem
- ravening n.
- Eagerness for plunder; rapacity; extortion. Luke xi. 39.
- burial n.
- A grave; a tomb; a place of sepulture. [OE. buriel, buriels, grave, tomb, AS. byrgels, fr. byrgan to bury, and akin to OS. burgisli sepulcher.]
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- pleiades n.
- The seven daughters of Atlas and the nymph Pleione, fabled to have been made by Jupiter a constellation in the sky.
- 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,]
- indirection n.
- Oblique course or means; dishonest practices; indirectness. [Cf. F. indirection.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Beach at Night is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, On the Beach at Night, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/on-the-beach-at-night.html, id L25578.
Form and metre
On the Beach at Night is 36 lines in 6 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 77% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.1 syllables. 17 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 4 -----A--BA-B- child · darling · tears · victorious · in · apparitionA · the · emerge · shallB · againA · endure · shallB · shine
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| On the beach at night, | 5 | ····· |
| Stands a child with her father, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Watching the east, the autumn sky. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Up through the darkness, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading, | 16 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘···/˘/˘ |
| Lower sullen and fast athwart and down the sky, | 12 | /˘/˘··˘/···· |
| Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east, | 16 | ˘/·˘/˘···/˘····· |
| Ascends large and calm the lord-star Jupiter, | 11 | ˘/······/˘˘ |
| And nigh at hand, only a very little above, | 13 | ····/˘·/˘/˘·· |
| Swim the delicate sisters the Pleiades. | 11 | ··/˘˘/˘·/˘· |
| From the beach the child holding the hand of her father, | 13 | ·····/˘····/˘ |
| Those burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all, | 18 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘/˘˘··˘/˘· |
| Watching, silently weeps. | 6 | /˘/˘˘· |
| Weep not, child, | 3 | ··· |
| Weep not, my darling, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| With these kisses let me remove your tears, | 10 | ··/˘··˘/·· |
| The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious, | 13 | ·/˘˘·····˘/˘˘ |
| They shall not long possess the sky, they devour the stars only in | 17 | ····˘/···˘/˘··/˘· |
| apparition, | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| Jupiter shall emerge, be patient, watch again another night, the | 17 | /˘˘·˘/·/˘·˘/˘/˘·· |
| Pleiades shall emerge, | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| They are immortal, all those stars both silvery and golden shall | 16 | ··˘/˘····/˘˘·/˘· |
| shine out again, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| The great stars and the little ones shall shine out again, they endure, | 16 | ·····/˘····˘/·˘/ |
| The vast immortal suns and the long-enduring pensive moons shall | 16 | ··˘/˘····˘/˘/˘·· |
| again shine. | 3 | ˘/· |
| Then dearest child mournest thou only for jupiter? | 13 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘˘ |
| Considerest thou alone the burial of the stars? | 14 | ˘/˘˘·˘/·/˘˘··· |
| Something there is, | 4 | /˘·· |
| (With my lips soothing thee, adding I whisper, | 11 | ···/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| I give thee the first suggestion, the problem and indirection,) | 16 | ·····˘/˘·/˘····· |
| Something there is more immortal even than the stars, | 13 | /˘···˘/˘/˘··· |
| (Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,) | 16 | /˘·/˘˘/˘····/˘˘/ |
| Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter | 16 | /˘··˘//˘/˘·/˘/˘˘ |
| Longer than sun or any revolving satellite, | 13 | /˘···/˘˘/˘/˘· |
| Or the radiant sisters the Pleiades. | 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.