Analysis of Night

James Thomson 1700 (Port Glasgow) – 1748 (London)



He cried out through the night:
"Where is the light?
Shall nevermore
Open Heaven's door?
Oh, I am left
Lonely, bereft!"
He cried out through the night:
It spread vaguely white,
With its ghost of a moon
Above the dark swoon
Of the earth lying chill,
Breathless, grave still.
He cried out through the night:
His voice in its might
Rang forth far and far,
And then like a star
Dwindled from sense
In the Immense.
He cried out through the night:
No answering light,
No syllabled sound;
Beneath and around
A long shuddering thrill
Then all again still.


Scheme AabbccAaddeeAaffggAahhee
Poetic Form
Metre 111101 1101 110 10101 1111 1001 111101 11101 111101 01011 101101 1011 111101 11011 11101 01101 1011 0001 111101 11001 111 01001 011001 11011
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 555
Words 102
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 428
Words per stanza (avg) 99
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

30 sec read
117

James Thomson

James Thomson, who wrote under the pseudonym Bysshe Vanolis, was a Scottish Victorian-era poet famous primarily for the long poem The City of Dreadful Night, an expression of bleak pessimism in a dehumanized, uncaring urban environment. more…

All James Thomson poems | James Thomson Books

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