A Picturesque Cottage and Grounds Belonging to J. Lemon, Esq
Stranger! mark this lovely scene,When the evening sets serene,And starting o'er the silent wood,The last pale sunshine streaks the flood,And the water gushing nearSoothes, with ceaseless drip, thine ear;Then bid each passion sink to rest;--Should ev'n one wish rise in thy breast,One tender wish, as now in mine,That some such quiet spot were thine,And thou, recalling seasons fled,Couldst wake the slumbers of the dead,And bring back her you loved, to shareWith thee calm peace and comfort there;--Oh, check the thought, but inly prayTo HE, "who gives and takes away,"That many years this fair domainIts varied beauties may retain;--So when some wanderer, who has lostHis heart's best treasure, who has crossedIn life bleak hills and passes rude,Should gain this lovely solitude;Delighted he may pause a while,And when he marks the landscape smile,Leave with its willows, ere he part,The blessings of a softened heart.
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
- drip v. i.
- To fall in drops; as, water drips from the eaves. [Akin to LG. drippen, Dan. dryppe, from a noun. See Drop.]
- inly a.
- Internal; interior; secret. [OE. inlich, AS. inlic. See In.]
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Picturesque Cottage and Grounds Belonging to J. Lemon, Esq is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan, Project Gutenberg ebook #18915; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Lisle Bowles, A Picturesque Cottage and Grounds Belonging to J. Lemon, Esq, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/a-picturesque-cottage-and-grounds-belonging-to-j-lemon-esq.html, id L09940.
Form and metre
A Picturesque Cottage and Grounds Belonging to J. Lemon, Esq is 26 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 23% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLLMM sceneA · sereneA · woodB · floodB · nearC · earC · restD · breastD · mineE · thineE · fledF · deadF · shareG · thereG · prayH · awayH · domainI · retainI · lostJ · crossedJ · rudeK · solitudeK · whileL · smileL · partM · heartM
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Stranger! mark this lovely scene, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| When the evening sets serene, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| And starting o'er the silent wood, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The last pale sunshine streaks the flood, | 8 | ···/···· |
| And the water gushing near | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Soothes, with ceaseless drip, thine ear; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Then bid each passion sink to rest;-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Should ev'n one wish rise in thy breast, | 8 | ········ |
| One tender wish, as now in mine, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That some such quiet spot were thine, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And thou, recalling seasons fled, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Couldst wake the slumbers of the dead, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And bring back her you loved, to share | 9 | ······˘·· |
| With thee calm peace and comfort there;-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Oh, check the thought, but inly pray | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To HE, "who gives and takes away," | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That many years this fair domain | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Its varied beauties may retain;-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| So when some wanderer, who has lost | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| His heart's best treasure, who has crossed | 9 | ···/˘···˘ |
| In life bleak hills and passes rude, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Should gain this lovely solitude; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Delighted he may pause a while, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| And when he marks the landscape smile, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Leave with its willows, ere he part, | 8 | ···/···· |
| The blessings of a softened heart. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
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.