Analysis of The Morning Star

George William Russell 1867 (Lurgan) – 1935 (Bournemouth)



IN the black pool of the midnight Lu has slung the morning star,
And its foam in rippling silver whitens into day afar
Falling on the mountain rampart piled with pearl above our glen,
Only you and I, beloved, moving in the fields of men.

In the dark tarn of my spirit, love, the morning star, is lit;        
And its halo, ever brightening, lightens into dawn in it.
Love, a pearl-grey dawn in darkness, breathing peace without desire;
But I fain would shun the burning terrors of the mid-day fire.

Through the faint and tender airs of twilight star on star may gaze,
But the eyes of light are blinded in the white flame of the days,        
From the heat that melts together oft a rarer essence slips,
And our hearts may still be parted in the meeting of the lips.

What a darkness would I gaze on when the day had passed the west,
If my eyes were dazed and blinded by the whiteness of a breast?
Never through the diamond darkness could I hope to see afar        
Where beyond the pearly rampart burned the purer evening star.


Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF GGAA
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 00111011110101 011010010101101 101010111101101 10101011000111 001111101010111 0110101001001101 1011101010101010 1111101010101110 10101011111111 101111100011101 101110101010101 0101111100010101 101011111011101 111010101010101 101010101111101 10101011010101
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,038
Words 205
Sentences 7
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 49
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 197
Words per stanza (avg) 47
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 11, 2023

1:01 min read
131

George William Russell

George William Russell who wrote under the pseudonym sometimes written AE or AE was an Irish nationalist writer editor critic poet and painter He was also a mystical writer and centre of a group of followers of theosophy in Dublin for many years more…

All George William Russell poems | George William Russell Books

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