Ballade Of Midsummer Days And Nights

William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)



With a ripple of leaves and a tinkle of streams
The full world rolls in a rhythm of praise,
And the winds are one with the clouds and beams -
Midsummer days! Midsummer days!
The dusk grows vast; in a purple haze,
While the West from a rapture of sunset rights,
Faint stars their exquisite lamps upraise -
Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights!

The wood's green heart is a nest of dreams,
The lush grass thickens and springs and sways,
The rathe wheat rustles, the landscape gleams -
Midsummer days! Midsummer days!
In the stilly fields, in the stilly ways,
All secret shadows and mystic lights,
Late lovers murmur and linger and gaze -
Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights!

There's a music of bells from the trampling teams,
Wild skylarks hover, the gorses blaze,
The rich, ripe rose as with incense steams -
Midsummer days! Midsummer days!
A soul from the honeysuckle strays,
And the nightingale as from prophet heights
Sings to the Earth of her million Mays -
Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights!

Envoy

And it's O, for my dear and the charm that stays -
Midsummer days! Midsummer days!
It's O, for my Love and the dark that plights -
Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:03 min read
48

Quick analysis:

Scheme abaBbcaC abaBbcbC abaBbcbC bBaC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,153
Words 209
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 4

William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus". more…

All William Ernest Henley poems | William Ernest Henley Books

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1 Comment
  • Saul Martinez
    Saul Martinez
    what is this poem referring to?
    LikeReply6 years ago

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"Ballade Of Midsummer Days And Nights" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/40446/ballade-of-midsummer-days-and-nights>.

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