Analysis of Night.

Robert Crawford 1959 (Bellshill)



The wings of Evening, spread like phantom sails
Athwart the waning west,
Now as the last thin streak of crimson fails,
Seem as with sleep possessed.
Now hope is changed to memory, and time
Becomes eternity,
As thought were chaunting to a runic rhyme
In some old mystery.
The shadows deepen, and the Night's weird stir
Seems like a spirit still
To tremble in the silence, as with her
Death walked invisible.
The heart can ken, e'en like an echo dead,
The eerie things they say
Who have come from a coast where none may tread
Within the dream of Day.
Night and her paramour — the last of things
That touch the soul with fear,
As that which deems that it is deathless clings
To its own shadow here.


Scheme ABABCDCDEFEGHIHIJKJL
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Etheree  (20%)
Metre 0111011101 010101 1101111101 111101 1111110001 010100 11011011 011100 011000111 110101 1100010110 110100 01111111101 010111 1111011111 010111 10010111 110111 111111111 11111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 686
Words 132
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 20
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 548
Words per stanza (avg) 130
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
138

Robert Crawford

Robert Crawford FRSE FBA is a Scottish poet, scholar and critic. He is currently Professor of English at the University of St Andrews.  more…

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