Analysis of A Night-Storm.
Let this rough fragment lend its mossy seat;
Let Contemplation hail this lone retreat:
Come, meek-eyed goddess, through the midnight gloom,
Born of the silent awe which robes the tomb!
This gothic front, this antiquated pile,
The bleak wind howling through each mazy aisle;
Its high gray towers, faint peeping through the shade,
Shall hail thy presence, consecrated maid!
Whether beneath some vaulted abbey's dome,
Where ev'ry footstep sounds in every tomb;
Where Superstition, from the marble stone,
Gives every sound, a pilgrim-spirit's groan:
Pensive thou readest by the moon's full glare
The sculptured children of Affection's tear;
Or in the church-yard lone thou sitt'st to weep
O'er some sad wreck, beneath the tufty heap--
Perchance some victim to Seduction's spell,
Who yielded, wept, and then neglected fell!
But hither come, on yon swoln arch to gaze,
And view the vivid flash eruptive blare;
Light those high walls with transitory gleam,
Illume the air, and sparkle in the stream.
Ah! look, where yonder tempest-shaken cloud,
Awful and black as the chaosian shroud,
Breaks, like the waves which lash the sandy shore,
And speaks its mission in a feeble row.
Thus Meditation hears: "Aspiring height!
Of old, the splendid mansions of the great;
Thy fate (tremendous) lours upon the blast,
And waits to write on thy remains:--'tis past!
Oft have the genii of the hoary blade
Around thy walls their hell-born demons led;
Yet hast thou triumph'd o'er each monster's car,
And braved the ills of pestilential war:
Oft hast thou seen the circling seasons roll
In fond succession round thy native pole;
Defied the hoary matron of the ring,
And seen her sicken in the lap of Spring.
But, ah! no more thy time-clad head shall rise
To dare the tempest, while it shakes the skies;
Nor one small wreck invade the fair concave,
Nor shout above its crumbling basis, Save!
When rising zephyr from thy ruin brings
A world of atoms on its fairy wings."
Din horrible! as though the rebel train
Had sprung from chaos, fought, and fall'n again,
Raves the high bolt: how yon old structure fell;
How every cranny trembled with the yell
Of frighted owls, whose secret haunts forlorn
Were from their kindred vaults and windings torn;
Of bold Antiquity's rough pencil born.
Thrice Fancy leads the dismal echo round,
And paints the spectre gliding o'er the ground.
From ev'ry turret, ev'ry vanquish'd tower,
In heaps confused the broken fragments pour;
And, as they plunge toward the pebbly grave,
Like wizard wand, draw circles in the wave.
Meand'ring stream! thy liquid jaws extend,
Anoint with Lethe now thy fallen friend.
Again the heralds of the thunder fly,
In forky squadrons, from the trembling sky!
Again the thunder its harsh menace swells,
And light-wing'd echoes hail the humbled cells!
Weep, weep, ye clouds! with heav'n-bespangled tears;
And, ah! if pity rules your sacred spheres,
Invoke the thunder to withstay its rage,
Disarm its fury, and its wrath assuage.
But now, Aurora, from the Ocean's verge,
Trims her gray lamp, to light the mournful dirge.
She comes, to light the ruinated heap:
But lights, to wake the pensive soul to weep!
Scheme | AABBCCDDXBEEFFGGHH XFIIJJKXXXLLDXXKMMNNOOPPQQ XXHHRRRSSXKPPTTUU VVXXWW XXGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111101111 101011101 111101011 1101011101 110111001 011101111 11110110101 111101001 1001110101 111101001 101010101 11001010101 101110111 01010111 1001111111 1011101011 01110111 1101010101 1101111111 010101101 111111001 101010001 1111010101 10011011 1101110101 0111000101 101010101 1101010101 1101010101 0111110111 110110101 0111111101 1111010111 0101111 11110100101 0101011101 0101010101 0101000111 1111111111 1101011101 1111010101 11011100101 1101011101 0111011101 1100110101 11110101101 1011111101 11001010101 111110101 011101011 1111101 1101010101 01010101001 111011010 0101010101 011101011 1101110001 11110101 011111101 0101010101 0110101001 0101011101 0111010101 11111111 0111011101 010101111 0111001101 1101010101 1011110101 1111011 1111010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,077 |
Words | 530 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 18, 26, 17, 6, 4 |
Lines Amount | 71 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 494 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 105 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:45 min read
- 6 Views
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"A Night-Storm." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56743/a-night-storm.>.
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