At Dover, 1786
Thou, whose stern spirit loves the storm,That, borne on Terror's desolating wings,Shakes the high forest, or remorseless flingsThe shivered surge; when rising griefs deformThy peaceful breast, hie to yon steep, and think,--When thou dost mark the melancholy tideBeneath thee, and the storm careering wide,--Tossed on the surge of life how many sink!And if thy cheek with one kind tear be wet,And if thy heart be smitten, when the cryOf danger and of death is heard more nigh,Oh, learn thy private sorrows to forget;Intent, when hardest beats the storm, to saveOne who, like thee, has suffered from the wave.
Words in this poem
- remorseless a.
- Being without remorse; having no pity; hence, destitute of sensibility; cruel; insensible to distress; merciless.
- deform a.
- Deformed; misshapen; shapeless; horrid. [L. deformis; de- + forma form: cf. OF. deforme, F. difforme. Cf. Difform.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At Dover, 1786 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, At Dover, 1786, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/at-dover-1786.html, id L09904.
Form and metre
At Dover, 1786 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 91%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 36% 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 stormA · wingsB · flingsA · deformB · thinkC · tideD · wideC · sinkD · wetE · cryF · nighE · forgetF · saveG · waveG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thou, whose stern spirit loves the storm, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That, borne on Terror's desolating wings, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘· |
| Shakes the high forest, or remorseless flings | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| The shivered surge; when rising griefs deform | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··/ |
| Thy peaceful breast, hie to yon steep, and think,-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| When thou dost mark the melancholy tide | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| Beneath thee, and the storm careering wide,-- | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Tossed on the surge of life how many sink! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And if thy cheek with one kind tear be wet, | 10 | ·········· |
| And if thy heart be smitten, when the cry | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of danger and of death is heard more nigh, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Oh, learn thy private sorrows to forget; | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Intent, when hardest beats the storm, to save | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| One who, like thee, has suffered from the wave. | 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.