Analysis of In The Placid Summer Midnight

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



In the placid summer midnight,
Under the drowsy sky,
I seem to hear in the stillness
The moths go glimmering by.

One by one from the windows
The lights have all been sped.
Never a blind looks conscious -
The street is asleep in bed!

But I come where a living casement
Laughs luminous and wide;
I hear the song of a piano
Break in a sparkling tide;

And I feel, in the waltz that frolics
And warbles swift and clear,
A sudden sense of shelter
And friendliness and cheer . . .

A sense of tinkling glasses,
Of love and laughter and light -
The piano stops, and the window
Stares blank out into the night.

The blind goes out, and I wander
To the old, unfriendly sea,
The lonelier for the memory
That walks like a ghost with me.


Scheme ABCB XDCD AEFE CGHG XAFA HIII
Poetic Form Quatrain  (67%)
Metre 0010101 100101 11110010 0111001 1111010 011111 1001110 0110101 11110101 110001 110110010 100101 01100111 010101 0101110 010001 01110010 1101001 001010010 1110101 01110110 1010101 0110100 1110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 707
Words 140
Sentences 9
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 94
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
45

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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