Analysis of In the City of Night
John Gould Fletcher 1886 (Little Rock) – 1950
(To the Memory of Edgar Allan Poe)
City of night,
Wrap me in your folds of shadow.
City of twilight,
City that projects into the west,
City whose columns rest upon the sunset, city of square, threatening
masses blocking out the light:
City of twilight,
Wrap me in your folds of shadow.
City of midnight, city that the full moon overflows, city where the cats
prowl and the closed iron dust-carts go rattling through the shadows:
City of midnight,
Wrap me in your folds of shadow.
City of early morning, cool fresh-sprinkled city, city whose sharp roof
peaks are splintered against the stars, city that unbars tall haggard
gates in pity,
City of midnight,
Wrap me in your folds of shadow.
City of rain, city where the bleak wind batters the hard drops once and again,
sousing a shivering, cursing beggar who clings amid the stiff Apostles on the
cathedral portico;
City where the glare is dull and lowering, city where the clouds flare and flicker
as they pass upwards, where sputtering lamps stare into the muddy pools
beneath them;
City where the winds shriek up the streets and tear into the squares, city whose
cobbles quiver and whose pinnacles waver before the buzzing chatter of raindrops
in their flight;
City of midnight,
Drench me with your rain of sorrow.
City of vermilion curtains, city whose windows drip with crimson, tawdry, tinselled,
sensual city, throw me pitilessly into your crowds.
City filled with women's faces leering at the passers by,
City with doorways always open, city of silks and swishing laces, city where bands
bray dance-music all night in the plaza,
City where the overscented light hangs tepidly, stabbed with jabber of the crowd,
city where the stars stare coldly, falsely smiling through the smoke-filled air,
City of midnight,
Smite me with your despair.
City of emptiness, city of the white façades, city where one lonely dangling lantern
wavers aloft like a taper before a marble sarcophagus, frightening away the ghosts;
City where a single white-lit window in a motionless blackened house-front swallows
the hosts of darkness that stream down the street towards it;
City above whose dark tree-tangled park emerges suddenly, unlit, uncannily, a grey
ghostly tower whose base is lost in the fog, and whose summit has no end.
City of midnight,
Bury me in your silence.
City of night,
Wrap me in your folds of shadow.
City of restlessness, city where I have tramped and wandered,
City where the herded crowds glance at me suspiciously, city where the churches are
locked, the shops unopened, the houses without hospitality,
City of restlessness,
Wrap me in your folds of shadow.
City of sleeplessness, city of cheap airless rooms, where in the gloom are heard snores
through the partition, lovers that struggle, couples that squabble, cabs that rattle,
cats that squall,
City of sleeplessness,
Wrap me in your folds of shadow.
City of feverish dreams, city that is being besieged by all the demons of darkness, city of
innumerable shadowy vaults and towers, city where passion flowers desperately and
treachery ends in death the strong:
City of night,
Wrap me in your folds of shadow.
Scheme | a BA BxxbBA cdBA xefBA xgaxxxxxbBa bxxxgxhBh xxdxxxBx BA exfxA cxxcA xxxBA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10100110101 1011 1101111 1011 101100101 10110101011011100 1010101 1011 1101111 10111010111010101 10011011110101 1011 1101111 101101011101010111 111001011011110 1010 1011 1101111 1011101011100111001 10100101011010101010 01010 10101110100101011010 11110110011010101 011 101011101010101101 11001110010101011 011 1011 11111110 10101010101101110101 100101110111 10111010110101 1011110101101101011 1110110010 10101111111101 10101110101010111 1011 111101 101100101011110111010010 10110100101001001000101 101010111000100101110 0111011101011 10011111010101001010001 101011110010110111 1011 1010110 1011 1101111 101100101111010 101010111101001010101 101010010010100 101100 1101111 101110111011001111 1001010110101101110 111 1011 1101111 10110011011100111010110101 010001001010101101010000 10010101 1011 1101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 3,167 |
Words | 525 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 2, 6, 4, 5, 11, 9, 8, 2, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 63 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 209 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
Font size:
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"In the City of Night" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54102/in-the-city-of-night>.
Discuss this John Gould Fletcher poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In