Night
Duncan Campbell Scott 1862 (Ottawa) – 1947
The night is old, and all the world
Is wearied out with strife;
A long gray mist lies heavy and wan
Above the house of life.
Four stars burn up and are unquelled
By the low, shrunken moon;
Her spirit draws her down and down--
She shall be buried soon.
There is a sound that is no sound,
Yet fine it falls and clear,
The whisper of the spinning earth
To the tranced atmosphere.
An odour lives where once was air,
A strange, unearthly scent,
From the burning of the four great stars
Within the firmament.
The universe, deathless and old,
Breathes, yet is void of breath:
As still as death that seems to move
And yet is still as death.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 46 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABXB ACXC XDXD XXXA XEXE |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 621 |
Words | 123 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Night" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/8350/night>.
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