Analysis of Meditation On A Cold, Dark, And Rainy Night

George Moses Horton 1779 (North Carolina) – 1883



Sweet on the house top falls the gentle shower,
When jet black darkness crowns the silent hour,
When shrill the owlet pours her hollow tone,
Like some lost child sequester'd and alone,
When Will's bewildering wisp begins to flare,
And Philomela breathes her dulcet air,
'Tis sweet to listen to her nightly tune,
Deprived of star-light or the smiling moon.
When deadly winds sweep round the rural shed,
And tell of strangers lost, without a bed,
Fond sympathy invokes her dol'rous lay,
And pleasure steals in sorrow's gloom away,
Till fost'ring Somnus bids my eyes to close,
And smiling visions open to repose;
Still on my soothing couch I lie at ease,
Still round my chamber flows the whistling breeze,
Still in the chain of sleep I lie confined,
To all the threat'ning ills of life resign'd,
Regardless of the wand'ring elf of night,
While phantoms break on my immortal sight.
The trump of morning bids my slumbers end,
While from a flood of rest I straight ascend,
When on a busy world I cast my eyes,
And think of nightly slumbers with surprise.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFGHIIJJKKLLMM
Poetic Form
Metre 11011101010 11110101010 110110101 1111010001 11010010111 001010101 1111010101 0111110101 1101110101 0111010101 110001011 010101101 11111111 0101010101 1111011111 1111010101 1001111101 1101111101 0101011111 1101110101 011101111 1101111101 1101011111 011101101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,056
Words 186
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 830
Words per stanza (avg) 184
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

58 sec read
58

George Moses Horton

George Moses Horton was an African-American poet and the first African American poet to be published in the Southern United States. His book was published in 1828 while he was still a slave; he remained a slave until he was emancipated late in the Civil War. more…

All George Moses Horton poems | George Moses Horton Books

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    Repeated use of words for effect and emphasis is called ________.
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