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Lyric Poem · Nature

The Night is Darkening Around Me

by Emily Brontë

1The night is darkening round me,

2The wild winds coldly blow ;

3But a tyrant spell has bound me,

4And I cannot, cannot go.

5The giant trees are bending

6Their bare boughs weighed with snow ;

7The storm is fast descending,

8And yet I cannot go.

9Clouds beyond clouds above me,

10Wastes beyond wastes below ;

11But nothing drear can move me :

12I will not, cannot go.

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Quick facts

Poem
The Night is Darkening Around Me
Poet
Emily Brontë
Length
12 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Winter

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
12 lines · 3 quatrains
End rhyme
ABAB in every stanza — alternate rhyme.
Line length
Lines run 6-8 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.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

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
Emily Brontë1818–1848
Source record
PoetryDBThe Night is Darkening Around Me by emily-bronte, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 ad63d4246329e6e6
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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