Mother Night
James Weldon Johnson 1871 (Jacksonville) – 1938 (Wiscasset)
Eternities before the first-born day,
Or ere the first sun fledged his wings of flame,
Calm Night, the everlasting and the same,
A brooding mother over chaos lay.
And whirling suns shall blaze and then decay,
Shall run their fiery courses and then claim
The haven of the darkness whence they came;
Back to Nirvanic peace shall grope their way.
So when my feeble sun of life burns out,
And sounded is the hour for my long sleep,
I shall, full weary of the feverish light,
Welcome the darkness without fear or doubt,
And heavy-lidded, I shall softly creep
Into the quiet bosom of the Night.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 133 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBAABBA CDECDE |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 583 |
Words | 108 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
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"Mother Night" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/20720/mother-night>.
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