The Night Cometh

John McCrae 1872 (Guelph) – 1918 (Boulogne-sur-Mer)



Cometh the night.  The wind falls low,
The trees swing slowly to and fro:
 Around the church the headstones grey
 Cluster, like children strayed away
But found again, and folded so.

No chiding look doth she bestow:
If she is glad, they cannot know;
 If ill or well they spend their day,
            Cometh the night.

Singing or sad, intent they go;
They do not see the shadows grow;
 "There yet is time," they lightly say,
 "Before our work aside we lay";
Their task is but half-done, and lo!
            Cometh the night.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

27 sec read
87

Quick analysis:

Scheme aabba aabC aabbaC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 516
Words 94
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 4, 6

John McCrae

Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae, MD was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I, and a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium. more…

All John McCrae poems | John McCrae Books

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