Recollections
'All eyes have stared, I've blown a blast so strong;'Forgot to smite at all, or smote too long.'If at the Ale-house door, with careless glee'One drinks to Jane, and darts a look on me;'I feel that blush which her dear name will bring,'I feel:--but, guilty Love, 'tis not thy sting!'Yet what are jeers? the bubbles of an hour;'Jane knows what Love can do, and feels its pow'r;'In her mild eye fair Truth her meaning tells;'Tis not in looks like her's that falsehood dwells.'As water shed upon a dusty way'I've seen midst downward pebbles devious stray;'If kindred drops an adverse channel keep,'The crystal friends toward each other creep;'Near, and still nearer, rolls each little tide,'Th' expanding mirror swells on either side:'They touch--'tis done--receding bound'ries fly,'An instantaneous union strikes the eye:
Words in this poem
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- jane n.
- A coin of Genoa; any small coin. [LL. Janua Genoa; L. Genua, also OE. Jean.]
- devious a.
- Out of a straight line; winding; varying from directness; as, a devious path or way. [L. devius; de + via way. See Viaduct.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Recollections is in the public domain. This text is taken from Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #9093; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Bloomfield, Recollections, in Rural Tales, Ballads and Songs (1802), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9093, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bloomfield-tales/recollections-2.html, id L09676.
Form and metre
Recollections is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 89% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCC--DDEEFFGGHH strongA · longA · gleeB · meB · bringC · stingC · hour · pow'r · tellsD · dwellsD · wayE · strayE · keepF · creepF · tideG · sideG · flyH · eyeH
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| 'All eyes have stared, I've blown a blast so strong; | 10 | ·········· |
| 'Forgot to smite at all, or smote too long. | 10 | ˘/········ |
| 'If at the Ale-house door, with careless glee | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| 'One drinks to Jane, and darts a look on me; | 10 | ·········· |
| 'I feel that blush which her dear name will bring, | 10 | ·········· |
| 'I feel:--but, guilty Love, 'tis not thy sting! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| 'Yet what are jeers? the bubbles of an hour; | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| 'Jane knows what Love can do, and feels its pow'r; | 10 | ·········· |
| 'In her mild eye fair Truth her meaning tells; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| 'Tis not in looks like her's that falsehood dwells. | 10 | ·······/·· |
| 'As water shed upon a dusty way | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| 'I've seen midst downward pebbles devious stray; | 10 | ···//˘/˘˘· |
| 'If kindred drops an adverse channel keep, | 10 | ·/˘··/·/˘· |
| 'The crystal friends toward each other creep; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| 'Near, and still nearer, rolls each little tide, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| 'Th' expanding mirror swells on either side: | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| 'They touch--'tis done--receding bound'ries fly, | 9 | ····˘/˘·· |
| 'An instantaneous union strikes the eye: | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.