Analysis Of Night Song By David Holbrook

The refrain justifies the title "Night Song". One of the traits of a song is refrain and the first and the last stanza of the poem are refrains. The poem "Night Song" by David Holbrook has five stanzas of four lines per stanza with planned rhyming scheme.

According to the context of the poem, when night comes and darkness dominates the atmosphere, few of the common happenings are people going to sleep, silence becoming so relevant (as few sounds that will be heard are sounds of "cricket and jar", "children snore", "the smell of clover", and so on)

At night, the weather becomes cold, owls become more active and same as the beetles.

Besides the aforementioned refrain, alliteration and personification are evident in the poem. Many inanimate are personified: Night was personified in line 4 "Night climbs the stairway". Poppy and rose are personified in line 9 "Poppy and rose swim in the warm remainder". Tree was personified in line 13-14 "Bare to the teeming black the heady tree/ Sighs in its sleep and stirs". Water was personified in line 16 "The water chuckles". Few instance of alliterations are "cups and clear" in line 1, "snore, the smell" in line 7, "cold comes" in line 11, "Sighs in its sleep and stirs" in line 14, "owl-wing Whirrs" in line 15, "beetle burrs" in line 16.

The impact of the nighttime is the central theme of the poem "Night Song" by David Holbrook. Though the poem has been categorised under family living and lifestyle, it employed some elements of nature such as daytime, nighttime, poppy and rose, tree, cold, owl-wing, beetle, to name just few.

According to wikipedia, David Holbrook attended City of Norwich School in Norwich where he was born in 1923. He later grew to become a well known English author and poet. David Holbrook died on the 11th of August in the year 2011.
MORE POETIC ANALYSIS>>>

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)