Lyric Poem · Love

I was in the darkness

by Stephen Crane

Reading room

1I was in the darkness;

2I could not see my words

3Nor the wishes of my heart.

4Then suddenly there was a great light —

5"Let me into the darkness again."

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“I was in the darkness” by Stephen Crane — quilloak.com/poems/i-was-in-the-darkness

Quick facts

Poem: I was in the darkness
Poet: Stephen Crane
Length: 5 lines
Form: Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes: Love, Short

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 5 lines · 2 stanzas of 1–4 lines
End rhyme: No regular perfect end rhyme. The poem may still be using slant rhyme, assonance, or internal echo, which this check does not score.
Line length: Lines run 6-9 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Stephen Crane1871–1900
Source record: PoetryDBI was in the darkness by stephen-crane, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 571c0730df9518df…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Short Poems Love Short

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