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The Luzumiyat · Chapter
VII explained
A brief quatrain depicting the passage of night into dawn, with the Pleiades and the Ethiopian Queen (the night sky) giving way to the morning light.
What happens
A brief quatrain depicting the passage of night into dawn, with the Pleiades and the Ethiopian Queen (the night sky) giving way to the morning light.
Themes in this chapter
Mortality and Transience
The vanishing of the night and stars symbolizes the fleeting nature of time and existence.
Key passages
“The Pleiads follow; and our Ethiop Queen, Emerging from behind her starry screen, Will steep her tresses in the saffron dye Of dawn, and vanish in the morning sheen.”
The Pleiades move across the sky, and the dark night, like an Ethiopian queen, appears from behind the stars, dips her hair in the yellow light of dawn, and disappears as morning brightens.
The imagery of night personified as a queen fading at dawn underscores the theme of transience.