Good-Night
Edward Thomas 1878 (London Borough of Lambeth) – 1917 (Pas-de-Calais)
The skylarks are far behind that sang over the down;
I can hear no more those suburb nightingales;
Thrushes and blackbirds sing in the gardens of the town
In vain: the noise of man, beast, and machine prevails.
But the call of children in the unfamiliar streets
That echo with a familiar twilight echoing,
Sweet as the voice of nightingale or lark, completes
A magic of strange welcome, so that I seem a king
Among men, beast, machine, bird, child, and the ghost
That in the echo lives and with the echo dies.
The friendless town is friendly; homeless, I am not lost;
Though I know none of these doors, and meet but strangers' eyes.
Never again, perhaps, after to-morrow, shall
I see these homely streets, these church windows alight,
Not a man or woman or child among them all:
But it is All Friends' Night, a traveller's good-night.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 119 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB BCBC XBXB XDXD |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 827 |
Words | 151 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Good-Night" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/9845/good-night>.
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