After a Tempestuous Voyage
As slow I climb the cliff's ascending side,Much musing on the track of terror past,When o'er the dark wave rode the howling blast,Pleased I look back, and view the tranquil tideThat laves the pebbled shore: and now the beamOf evening smiles on the gray battlement,And yon forsaken tower that time has rent:--The lifted oar far off with transient gleamIs touched, and hushed is all the billowy deep!Soothed by the scene, thus on tired Nature's breastA stillness slowly steals, and kindred rest;While sea-sounds lull her, as she sinks to sleep,Like melodies that mourn upon the lyre,Waked by the breeze, and, as they mourn, expire!
Words in this poem
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- pebbled a.
- Abounding in pebbles. Thomson.
- billowy a.
- Of or pertaining to billows; swelling or swollen into large waves; full of billows or surges; resembling billows.
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- lull v. t.
- To cause to rest by soothing influences; to compose; to calm; to soothe; to quiet. [Akin to OD. lullen to sing to sleep, G. lullen, Dan. lulle, Sw. lulla; all of imitative origin. Cf. Loll, Lollard.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After a Tempestuous Voyage 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, After a Tempestuous Voyage, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/after-a-tempestuous-voyage.html, id L09874.
Form and metre
After a Tempestuous Voyage is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other English sonnets, 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 ABABCDCDEFEFGG sideA · pastB · blastA · tideB · beamC · battlementD · rentC · gleamD · deepE · breastF · restE · sleepF · lyreG · expireG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As slow I climb the cliff's ascending side, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Much musing on the track of terror past, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| When o'er the dark wave rode the howling blast, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Pleased I look back, and view the tranquil tide | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That laves the pebbled shore: and now the beam | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of evening smiles on the gray battlement, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| And yon forsaken tower that time has rent:-- | 10 | ··˘/˘/···· |
| The lifted oar far off with transient gleam | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Is touched, and hushed is all the billowy deep! | 11 | ·······/˘˘· |
| Soothed by the scene, thus on tired Nature's breast | 10 | ······//˘· |
| A stillness slowly steals, and kindred rest; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| While sea-sounds lull her, as she sinks to sleep, | 10 | ·········· |
| Like melodies that mourn upon the lyre, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Waked by the breeze, and, as they mourn, expire! | 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.