After Dark Vapours Have Oppressed Our Plains
After Dark Vapours Have Oppressed Our Plains - form Summary
Sonnet Framing a Quiet Turn
This poem is a sonnet that shapes a clear emotional journey: it begins with oppressive vapours and a dreary season, then shifts—via a gentle southern day—to serene, restorative imagery. The octave’s clearing atmosphere yields a sestet of calm, domestic and natural images (budding leaves, ripening fruit, evening suns) that culminate in the striking final image of a poet’s death, suggesting peaceful resolution and artistic transcendence.
Read Complete AnalysesAfter dark vapours have oppressed our plains For a long dreary season, comes a day Born of the gentle South, and clears away From the sick heavens all unseemly stains. The anxious month, relievèd of its pains, Takes as a long-lost right the feel of May; The eyelids with the passing coolness play, Like rose leaves with the drip of summer rains. The calmest thoughts come round us—as of leaves Budding,—fruit ripening in stillness,—autumn suns Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves,— Sweet Sappho’s cheek;—a smiling infant’s breath,— The gradual sand that through an hour-glass runs,— A woodland rivulet, a Poet’s death.
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