Dover Cliffs
On these white cliffs, that calm above the floodUprear their shadowing heads, and at their feetHear not the surge that has for ages beat,How many a lonely wanderer has stood!And, whilst the lifted murmur met his ear,And o'er the distant billows the still eveSailed slow, has thought of all his heart must leaveTo-morrow; of the friends he loved most dear;Of social scenes, from which he wept to part!Oh! if, like me, he knew how fruitless allThe thoughts that would full fain the past recall,Soon would he quell the risings of his heart,And brave the wild winds and unhearing tide--The World his country, and his GOD his guide.
Words in this poem
- uprear v. t.
- To raise; to erect.
- shadowing n.
- Shade, or gradation of light and color; shading. Feltham.
- fruitless a.
- Lacking, or not bearing, fruit; barren; destitute of offspring; as, a fruitless tree or shrub; a fruitless marriage.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dover Cliffs 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, Dover Cliffs, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/dover-cliffs.html, id L09882.
Form and metre
Dover Cliffs 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 86%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 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 floodA · feetB · beatA · stoodB · earC · eveD · leaveC · dearD · partE · allF · recallE · heartF · tideG · guideG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| On these white cliffs, that calm above the flood | 10 | ·········· |
| Uprear their shadowing heads, and at their feet | 10 | ˘/·/˘····· |
| Hear not the surge that has for ages beat, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| How many a lonely wanderer has stood! | 10 | ·/·/˘/˘˘·· |
| And, whilst the lifted murmur met his ear, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And o'er the distant billows the still eve | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Sailed slow, has thought of all his heart must leave | 10 | ·········· |
| To-morrow; of the friends he loved most dear; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Of social scenes, from which he wept to part! | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Oh! if, like me, he knew how fruitless all | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The thoughts that would full fain the past recall, | 10 | ········/· |
| Soon would he quell the risings of his heart, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And brave the wild winds and unhearing tide-- | 10 | ·········· |
| The World his country, and his GOD his guide. | 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.