In the Harbour: Chimes
In the Harbour: Chimes - meaning Summary
Night Bells and Cosmic Calm
Longfellow’s short poem addresses night chimes that mark the passing hour and trigger an inward, cosmic vision. The speaker sees constellations through inner sight and imagines them singing as they move. Wakefulness under the vast starry dome is presented as more fitting than sleep, producing a quiet, contemplative sense of the world sinking gently beneath like foam. The poem links a domestic sound to a vast, calming cosmic order.
Read Complete AnalysesSweet chimes! that in the loneliness of night Salute the passing hour, and in the dark And silent chambers of the household mark The movements of the myriad orbs of light! Through my closed eyelids, by the inner sight, I see the constellations in the arc Of their great circles moving on, and hark! I almost hear them singing in their flight. Better than sleep it is to lie awake, O'er-canopied by the vast starry dome Of the immeasurable sky; to feel The slumbering world sink under us, and make Hardly an eddy,--a mere rush of foam On the great sea beneath a sinking keel.
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