Shadow March

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)



All around the house is the jet-black night;
It stares through the window-pane;
It crawls in the corners, hiding from the light,
And it moves with the moving flame.

Now my little heart goes a beating like a drum,
With the breath of the Bogies in my hair;
And all around the candle and the crooked shadows come,
And go marching along up the stair.

The shadow of the balusters, the shadow of the lamp,
The shadow of the child that goes to bed--
All the wicked shadows coming tramp, tramp, tramp,
With the black night overhead.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

29 sec read
175

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAX BCBC DEDE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 532
Words 99
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. more…

All Robert Louis Stevenson poems | Robert Louis Stevenson Books

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    "Shadow March" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/31664/shadow-march>.

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