Analysis of 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.


Scheme ABBAABBA CDECDE
Poetic Form Petrarchan sonnet 
Metre 1010111 1101111111 110010001 0101010101 0101110101 11110010011 0101010111 11111111 1111011111 01010101111 11110101001 1001001111 010111101 0101010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 583
Words 108
Sentences 4
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 233
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
133

James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson was an American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is best remembered for his leadership within the NAACP as well as for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and anthologies. He was also the first African-American professor at New York University. Later in life he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University. more…

All James Weldon Johnson poems | James Weldon Johnson Books

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