Analysis of The Day is Done
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of night
As a feather wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.
I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
That my soul cannot resist:
A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.
Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of the day.
Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of time.
For, like the strains of martial music,
Their mighty throughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;
And tonight I long for rest.
Read from the humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;
Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.
Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.
Then read the treasured volume
The poem of my choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.
Scheme | XAXA XBCB DECE XFDF XGXG HIJI KLJL JMHM KNXN XOKO HFXF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 01110010 110111 10101010 1110011 11011010 1101001 00101101101 1111001 010110010 1110111 00101010 10101001 1111110 110011 11111010 01001101 1101110 110101 110110 1010011 110111010 110101 11010010 0011111 11010010 111111 110101110 111011 1111110 010111 11011010 1100100 11110110 010111 0110010 110101 1101010 010111 011011010 010111 001111110 00110101 11111010 01100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,399 |
Words | 256 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 100 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 26, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 232 Views
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"The Day is Done" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18842/the-day-is-done>.
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