Analysis of Night And Day

Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)



The innocent, sweet Day is dead.
Dark Night hath slain her in her bed.
O, Moors are as fierce to kill as to wed!
 -- Put out the light, said he.

A sweeter light than ever rayed
From star of heaven or eye of maid
Has vanished in the unknown Shade.
 -- She's dead, she's dead, said he.

Now, in a wild, sad after-mood
The tawny Night sits still to brood
Upon the dawn-time when he wooed.
 -- I would she lived, said he.

Star-memories of happier times,
Of loving deeds and lovers' rhymes,
Throng forth in silvery pantomimes.
 -- Come back, O Day! said he.


Scheme AAAB CCCB DDDB EEEB
Poetic Form
Metre 01001111 11110001 1111111111 110111 01011101 111101111 11000011 111111 10011101 01011111 01011111 111111 110011001 11010101 1101001 111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 544
Words 108
Sentences 12
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 102
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
103

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier was a poet, writer, composer, critic, professor of literature at Johns Hopkins and first flutist with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltiimore. He wrote the Centennial cantata for the opening ceremony of the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. more…

All Sidney Lanier poems | Sidney Lanier Books

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