Analysis of When the Dark Comes Down
Lucy Maud Montgomery 1874 (New London, Prince Edward Island) – 1942 (Toronto)
When the dark comes down, oh, the wind is on the sea
With lisping laugh and whimper to the red reef's threnody,
The boats are sailing homeward now across the harbor bar
With many a jest and many a shout from fishing grounds afar.
So furl your sails and take your rest, ye fisher folk so brown,
For task and quest are ended when the dark comes down.
When the dark comes down, oh, the landward valleys fill
Like brimming cups of purple, and on every landward hill
There shines a star of twilight that is watching evermore
The low, dim lighted meadows by the long, dim-lighted shore,
For there, where vagrant daisies weave the grass a silver crown,
The lads and lassies wander when the dark comes down.
When the dark comes down, oh, the children fall asleep,
And mothers in the fisher huts their happy vigils keep;
There's music in the song they sing and music on the sea,
The loving, lingering echoes of the twilight's litany,
For toil has folded hands to dream, and care has ceased to frown,
And every wave's a lyric when the dark comes down.
Scheme | AXBBCC DDEECC FFAACC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101111011101 11101010111 01110101010101 1100101001110101 11110111110111 110111010111 101111010101 110111001100101 110111111010 0111011011101 11110101010101 01011010111 101111010101 01000101110101 11000111010101 01010010101100 11110111011111 0100101010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,035 |
Words | 194 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 46 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 273 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 59 sec read
- 83 Views
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"When the Dark Comes Down" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26287/when-the-dark-comes-down>.
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