Written Near a Port on a Dark Evening Literary Elements

Third-person narration by an unnamed speaker observing a port at night.

The poem is an English sonnet divided into three quatrains and a couplet with an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme, written in iambic pentameter

The speaker uses a simile to visually compare the lights of ships to fairy fires, used to mislead lost travelers. Then, in a complicated turn, she uses another simile to compare those fairy lights to reason, arguing that both can be misleading. The poem also uses the dark ocean itself as a metaphor for life and its uncertainties.

The repeated alliterative "R" sounds in the lines “Save where is heard the repercussive roar” and “Of rocks remote; or still more distant tone” mimic the dull, roaring sound of the sea. The alliterative "F" sounds in the phrase "fairy fires" use sibilance to create a feeling of mystery. Meanwhile, assonant "A" sounds in the phrase "black shadow" lengthen the line, stressing the vastness of the scenery.

The speaker suggests that the very tools that seem to promise certainty, especially reason itself, can often be misleading and confusing.

English Sonnet, Romantic poem

The poem takes place near a rocky shore where sailors have moored their vessel.

Somber; ominous

The protagonist of the poem is the speaker, while the antagonist is the concept of reason (or uncritical devotion to reason)

The poem's major conflict is philosophical—an argument regarding the capacity of reason and empiricism to provide helpful and accurate answers about the world.

The climax occurs when the speaker compares the ship lights to fairy fires. Here, both form and content change following the volta, and the rest of the poem comes into sharper focus as the speaker brings up the central issue of reason.

The speaker's first observation, of vapours that "brood," foreshadows her own thoughtful, brooding mood.

N/A

The poem alludes loosely to the Enlightenment embrace of reason, arguing that such an embrace is unhelpful or even harmful.

"One deep voice" is used as a synecdochic representation of the actual person speaking.

The speaker personifies much of nature, stating that clouds "brood," that night is "mute," and that waves "roar." These personifications reflect the speaker's own pessimism and make the natural world appear moody and even hostile.

The speaker uses hyperbole to make broad statements such as "All is black shadow," declaring that the night is entirely dark and silent even while taking note of visual and auditory images.

The term “roar” onomatopoetically evokes the sound of ocean waves.